Message  of  Hfs  Sxcell; 


Joseph  E.  Brown 


PERKINS  LIBRARY 

Duke   University 
Kare  Doolca 

MEASURE  ROOM 

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in  2010  with  funding  from 
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http://www.archive.org/details/messageofhisexceOOgeor 


MESSAGE 


OF 


TO  THE 


HIS  EXCELLENCY  JOSEPH  E.    BROWN,  ; 


. 


EXTRA  SESSION  OF  THE  LEGISLATURE* 


CONVENED  MARCH  10TH,  1864, 


Upon  the  Guerengt  Act;  Secret  sessions  of  C 
gress;  The  late   Conscription  Act  ;  The  Un- 
constitutionality of  the  Act  suspending 
hie  privilege  of  the  writ  of  nabeas 
corpus,  in   cases  of  illegal  ar- 
rests made  by  the  president  j 
tlie  causes  of   the  war  and  manner  of  conduct- 
ING   it  ;    And   the   terms    upon    which   peace. 

SHOULD  BE  SOUGHT,  &C. 


$»«&i^iv«r' 


BOUGHTON,  NISBET,  BARNES  &  MOORE,  State  Printer 

MILLXDOEVILLE,    Gk., 


I  36 1 


• 


i 


V*J  clif  J*»«| 


MESSAGE 


EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT,    } 
Milled ge vi lLe,  Ga*.,  March  10th  1804.    I 

7o  the  Senate,  and  House  of  Ileprescntaf/r,  s : 

The  patriotic  zeal  exhibited  by  you  at  your  late  session, 
for  the  promotion  of  the  interest  and  protection  of  the  liberties 
of  the  country,  and  the  personal  kindness  and  official  cour- 
tesy which  I  received  at  your  hands,  and  for  which  I  renew 
ipy  thanks,  have  satisfied  me  that  laying  aside  all  past  par- 
ty names,  issues,  and  strifes,  your  object,  as  legislators  is  to 
discharge  faithfully  your  official  duties,  and  to  sacrifice  all 
private  interests  and  personal  preferences,  to  the  public 
good.  In  view  of  these  considerations,  I  feel  that  I  can  re- 
ly upon  your  counsels  as  a  tower  of  strength  in  time  of 
darkness  and  gloom.  I  have  therefore  convened  you  that  I 
may  have  Jhe  benefit  of  your  advice  and  assistance,  at  this 
critical  juncture  in  our  State  and  Confederate  affairs. 

TRANSPORTATION  OF  COIIN  TO  INDIGENT   SOLDIERS   FAMILIES. 

Since  your  adjournment  experience  has  shown  that  it  is 
not  possible  without  assistance  from  the  State,  which  will 
require  further  .legislation,  for  the  agents  of  the  counties 
where  there  is  great  scarcity  of  provisions,  to  secure  trans- 
portation for  the  corn  purchased  in  South  Western  and  Mid- 
ale  Georgia,  to  the  places  where  it  is  needed.  To  meet 
this  difficulty,  I  respectfully  recommend  t^ie  passage  of  a 
law,  authorizing  the  Quarter-Master  General  of  this  State; 
or  such  other  officer  as  the  Governor  may  from  time  to 
time  designate,  under  the  order  of  the  Governor,  to  take  pos- 
session of  and  control  any  cf  the  Rail  Roads  in  the  State, 
with  their  rolling  stock,  or  any  other  available  conveyance, 
and  require  that  corn  or  other  provisions,  for  the  needy  or 
for  the  county  agents  for  soldiers  families,  be  transported  in 
preference  to  all  other  articles  or  things  ;  except  the  troops, 
And  the  supplies  necessary  for  the  support  of  the  armies  of 
the  Confederate  Stales,  and  that  the  act  provide  for  the 
payment  of  just  compensation,  for  the  use  of  such  means  of 
transportation,  while  in  possession  of  the  authorized  offi- 
•cers  of  this  State — the  compensation  to  be  paid  out  of  the 
i.money  already  appropriated  as   a  relief  fund,  by  the  agents 


nn  a  i\  il 


or  persons  at  whose  request  the  transportation  may  be  fur- 
nished. 

Experience  has  also  proved  that  the  counties  of  North  Eas- 
tern Georgia  most  remote  from  the  Railroad  cannot  obtain 
sufficient  means  of  transportation  to  carry  the  corn  from  the 
Rail  Road  to  the  place  of  consumption.  The  scarcity  of 
teams -is  owing  to  the  fact  that  their  horses  have  been 
taken  for  cavalry  service,  and  their  oxen  have  been  im- 
pressed for  beef  for  the  army.  Finding  that  there  was- 
likely  to  be  much  suffering  in  that  section  for  bread  for 
soldiers'  families,  I  ordered  the  energetic  Quartet  Master 
General  of  the  State,  to  .purchase  teams  and  wagons  by 
drafts  upon  themilitary  fund,  and  aid  those  most  destitute, 
and  most  remote  from  the  Rail  Road  in  the  transportation 
of  the  corn.  If  this  action  is  approved  by  the  Legislature, 
as  I  trust  it  will  be,  the  teams  now  about  ready  for  use, 
can  be  employed  in  this  service  for  a  portion  of  the  year. 
If  not  approved  they  will  at  any  time  command  more  in 
the  market  than  they  cost  the  State,  if  not  needed  for  mili- 
tary uses. 

KELIEF    FUND    FOR    SOLDIERS'    FAMILIES. 

I  am  satisfied 'that  the'indigent  families  of  soldiers,  in 
many  of  the  counties  of  this  State,  are  not  receiving  the 
benefits  to  which  they  are  entitled,  on  account  of  the  neg- 
lect or  mismanagement  of  the  Inferior  Courts.  Six  millions 
of  dollars  have  been  appropriated  for  this  purpose,  for  the 
present  year,  which  if  properly  applied,  is  sufficient  to  pre- 
vent any  actual  suffering.  Complaints  come  up  constantly 
that  adequate  provisions  are  not  made  for  the  needy.  In 
many  cases,  I  have  no  doubt,  these  complaints  arj  welt 
founded.  As  evidence  of  the  neglect  of  part  of  the  Courts, 
it  may  be  proper  to  state,  that  great  as  the  destitution  is 
among  those  entitled  to  the  iund,  the  amount  due  for  the 
last  quarter  of  last  year,  has  not  in  some  cases  been  appli- 
ed for.  Some  courts  have  not  yet  sent  in  their  reports  of 
the  number  entitled  for  the  present  year;  so  as  to  enable- 
me  to  have  the  calculation  made;  and  the  amount  due  each 
county  ascertained;  while  many  of  the  counties  have  made- 
no  application  for  any  part  of  the  fund  appropriated  for  this 
year. 

While  the  Governor  has  power,  to  require  the  courts  to 
make  reports,  of  the  disposition  made  offthe  fund,  in  cases- 
where  he  suspects  it  is  being  improperly  applied;  and  to- 
withhold  payments  to  the  courts  in  such  cases;  he  has  no 
power  to  compel  the  courts  to  do  their  duty,  nor  can  he 
take  the  fund  from  them  and  appoint  any  other  person  or 
agent  to  distribute  it  among  those  for  whom  if  is  intended. 
If  the  courts  fail  to  act,  the  law  makes  no  other  provision 
for  the  distribution  of  the  fund.  Unless  some  better  plan 
is  adopted,  I  am  satisfied  the  objects  of  the  Legislature,  will 


be  very  imperfectly  carried  out,  in  many  of  the  counties; 
and  the  needy  will  not  receive  the  benefits  of  the  liberal 
provision  made  for  them,  by  the  appropriation.  As  it  may 
be  necessary  to  provide  for  the  appointment  of  active  reli- 
able agents  in  the  counties,  to  assist  the  courts,  or  to  take 
charge  of  the  fund  in  case  of  neglect,  or  mismanagement 
by  them;  I  respectfully  suggest  that  provision  should  be 
made  for  commissioning  all  such,  as  oflicersof  this  State,  so 
as  to  protect  them  against  conscription.  It  will  be  im- 
possible to  relieve  the  needy,  if  our  most  valuable  county 
agents,  are  taken  from  the  discharge  of  their  important  du- 
ties by  the  enrolling  officers  of  the  Confederacy. 

Provision  should  also  be  made  for  the  removal  from  of- 
fice, of  all  Justices  of  the  Inferior  Courts,  who  neglect  or 
refuse  to  discharge  their  duties  promptly  and  faithfully. 

COTTON    PLANTING. 

Having  on  former  occasions,  brought  the  question  of  far- 
ther restriction  of  Cotton  planting  to  the  attention  of  the 
General  Assembly,  I  feel  a  delicacy  in  again  recurring  to 
that  subject.  The  present  prices  6f  provisions,  and  the 
great  importance  of  securing  a  continued  supply  of  the  ne- 
cessaries of  life,  are  my  excuse  for  again  earnestly  recom- 
mending, that  the  law  be  so  changed,  as  to  make  it  highly 
penal,  lor  any  person  to  plant  or  cultivate  in  Cotton,  more 
than  one  quarter  ot  an  acre  to  the  hand,  till  the  end  of  the 
war. 

This  additional  restraint  h  not  necessary,  to  control  the 
conduct  of  the  more  liberal  and  patriotic  portion  of  our  peo- 
ple; but  there  are  those,  who  for  the  purpose  of  making  a 
little  more  money,  will  plant  the  last  seed  allowed  by  law, 
without  stopping  to  enquire,  whether  they  thereby,  endan- 
ger the  liberties  of  the  people,  and  the  independence  of  the 
Confederacy. 

To  control  the  conduct  of  this  class  of  persons,  and  to  the 
extent  of  our  ability  to  provide  against  the  possible  contin- 
gency of  a  failure  of  supplies  in  future,  I  feel  it  to  be  an 
imperative  duty,  again  to  urge  upon  your  consideration,  the 
importance  of  the  legislation  above  recommended. 

ILLEGAL    DISTILLATION. 

I  beg  leave  again  to  call  the  attention  of  the  General  As- 
sembly, fcp-the  illegal  distillation  of  grain  into  spirituous  li- 
quors. 80  great  are  the  profits  realized  by  those  engaged 
in  this  business,  that  the  law  is  evaded  in  every  way  that 
ingenuity  can  devise;  and  I  am  satisfied  that  the  evil  can  not 
be  effectually  suppressed  without  farther  and  more  string- 
ent legislation,  feome  of  the  Judges  have  ruled,  that  the 
act  passed  at  your  last  Session)  does  not  give  them  author- 
ity to  draw  and  compel  the  attendance  of  a  jury,  out  of  the 
regular  term  time  of  the  Court,  to  try  the  question  of  nuis- 


ance;  while  some  public  officers  have  shown  no  disposition 
to  act,  for  fear  of  incurring  the  ill-will  of  persons  of  wealth 
and  influence,  who.  are  engaged  in  the  daily  violation  of  the 
law. 

Distillers  in  some  parts  of  the  State,  are  paying  ten  dol- 
lars per  bushel  for  Corn  to  convert  into  Whiskey;  while 
soldiers'  families,  and  other  poor  persons  are  suffering  for 
bread.  r 

I  renew  the  expression  of  my  firm  conviction,  that  the 
evil  can  only  be  effectually  suppressed  by  the  seizure  of  the 
stills.  We  now  need  copper  for  the  use  of  the  State  Road, 
and  fed!  military  uses,  and  I  earnestly  request,  that  an  act 
be  passed,  authorizing  the  Governor,  to  impress  all  the 
stills,  in  the  State,  which  he  has  reasonable  ground  to  sus- 
pect have  been  used  in  violation  of  the  law;  and  convert 
them  into  such  material,  for  the  Road,  and  implements  of 
war,  as  the  State  may  need;  and  that  he  be  authorized  to 
use  all  the  military  force  necessary  to  accomplish  the  ob- 
ject; and  that  provision  be  made  for  paying  the  owner  just 
compensation  for  such  stills  when  seized.  I  also  recom- 
mend that  provision  be  made  for  annulling  the  commission 
of  any  civil,  or  military  officer  of  this  State,  who  fails  to 
exercise  vigilance,  and  to  discharge  his  duty  faithfully  in 
the  execution  of  the  law  against  illegal  distillation. 

IMPRESSMENT    OF   PROVISIONS. 

Since  ycurlast  Session,  experience  has  proven,  that  from 
distrust  of  the  currency  or  from  other  cause,  many  {danters 
have  refused  to  sell  corn,  or  ofher  provisions,  not  necessary 
for  their  own  use,  to  State  or  county  agents,  for  the  market 
price  when  offered,  while  soldiers'  families  have  been  suffer- 
ing for  provisions. 

I  recommend  the  enactment  of  a  law.  authorizing  State  of- 
ficers, under  the  direction  of  the  Governor,  to  make  impress- 
ments of  provisions  in  all  such  cases,  and  providing  for  the 
payment  of  just  compensation  to  the  owners  of  the  property 
impressed. 

SEAVES   ESCAPING   TO   THE   ENEMY. 

The  official  reports  of  Federal  officers,  are  said  to  show 
that  the  enemy  now  has  50,000  of  our  slaves  employed 
against  us.  If  these  50,000  able  bodied  negroes,  had  been 
carried  into  the  interior  by  their  owners,  when  the  enemy 
approached  the  locality,  where  they  were  employed;  and 
put  to  work,  clearing  land  and  making'  provisions,  we 
should  to-day  have  been  50,000  stronger  and  the  enemy  that 
much  weaker,  making  a  difference  of  100,000  in  the  present 
relative  strength  of  the  parties  to  the  struggle.  When  a. 
negro  man  worth  $1,000  upon  the  gold  basis,  escapes  to  the- 
enemy,  that  sum  of  the  aggregate  wealth  of  the  State,  upon, 
which  she  should  receive  taxes  is  lost,— one  laborer  who* 


7 

should  be  employed  in  the  production  of  provisions  is  also 
lost,  while  one  laborer,  or  one  more  armed  man,  is  added  to 
the  strength  of  the  enemy. 

It  is  therefore  unjustifiable  and  unpatriotic,  for  the  owner 
to  keep  his  negroes,  within  such  distance  of  the  enemy's 
lines  as  to  make  it  easy  for  them  to  escape.  This  should 
not  "be  permitted;  and  to  prevent  it  in  future,  such  laws 
should  be  enacted,  as  may  be  necessary  to  compel  their  re- 
moval by  the  owner  in  such  case  or  to  provide  for  their  for- 
feiture to  the  State. 

No  man  has  a  right  to  so  use  his  own  property,  so  as  to 
weaken  our  strength,  diminish  our  provision  supply;  and 
add  recruits  to  the  arnly  of  the  enemy. 

DESERTION    OF   OUR   CAUSE   BY   REMOVALS    WITHIN     THE    EN- 
EMY'S    LINE. 

I  am  informed  that  a  number  of  persons  in  the  portion  of 
our  State,  adjoining  to  East  Tennessee,  have  lately  removed 
with  their  families  within  the  lines  of  the  enemy;  and  carri- 
ed with  them  their  movable  property.  Those  persons  have 
never  been  loyal  to  the  cause  of  the  South;  and  they  now 
avail  themselves  of  the  earliest  opportunity  to  unite  with 
the  enemies  of  their  State. 

I  recommend  the  enactment  of  a  law,  providing  for  the 
confiscation  of  the  property  of  all  such  persons;  and  that  all 
such  property  be  sold,  and  the  proceeds  of  the  sale,  applied 
to  the  payment  of  damages,  done  to  loyal  citizens  of  the 
same  section;  whose  property  has  been  destroyed,  by  raids 
of  the  enemy,  or  by  armed  bands  of  torics. 

I  am  also  informed,  that  some  disloyal  persons  in  that  sec- 
tion, have  deserted  from  our  armies;  or  avoiding  service  have 
left  their  families  behind,  and  gone  over  to  the  enemy,  and 
are  now  under  arms  against  us.  I  am  happy  to  learn  that 
the  'number  of  such  persons  is  very  small.  I  recommend 
the  confiscation  of  the  property  of  this  class  of  persons  also, 
and  in  case  they  have  left  families  behind,  that  arc  a  charge 
to  the  county,  that  no  part  of  the  relief  fund  be  allowed 
them;  but  that  they  he  carried  to  the  enemy's  lines,  and 
turned  over  to  those  in  whose  cause  their  husbands  now 
serve. 

I  also  recommend  the  enactment  of  such  laws,  as  shall  for- 
ever disfranchise  and  decitizenize  all  persons  of  both  classes, 
should  they  attempt  to  return  to  this  State. 

THE  CURRENCY. 

The  late  action  of  the  Congress  of  the  Confederate 
States  upon  the  subject  of  the  currency  has  rendered  fur- 
ther legislation  necessary  in  this  State  upon  that  question. 
It  can  not  be  denied  that  this  act  has  seriously  embar- 
rassed the  financial  system  of  this  State,  and  has  shaken 
the  confidence  of  our  people  in  either  the  justice  of  the  late 


3 

fUxagre&sor  its  competency  to  manage  our  financial  affairs. 
Probably  the  history  of  the  past  furnishes  few  more  strik- 
ing .instances  of  unsound  policy  combined  with  bad  faith. 

The  Government  issues  its  Treasury  note  for  $100,  and 
hinds  itself  two  years  after  a  treaty  of  peace,  between  the 
Confederate  States  and  the  United  States,  to  pay  the  bear- 
er that  snm  ;  and  stipulates  upon*the  face  of  the  note,  that 
it  is  fundable  in  Confederate  States  stocks  or  bonds;  and 
receivable  in  payment  of  all  public  dues  except  export  du- 
(tiea.  The  Congress  while  the  war  is  still  progressing,  pas- 
ses astatutethatthis  bill  shall  be  funded  in  about  forty  days 
or  one  third  of  it  shall  be  repudiated,  and  that  a  tax  of  ten 
per  cent  a  month  shall  be  paid  for  it  after  that  time  by  the 
holder,  and  it  shall  no  longer  be  receivable  in  payment  of 
public  dues,  and  if  it  is  not  funded  by  the  1st  of  January  next, 
the  whole  debt  is  repudiated.  Did  the  holder  take  the 
cote,  with  any  such  expectation  ?  Was  this  the  contract, 
xm.4  is  this  the  way  the  government  is  to  keep  its  faith? 
If  we  get  rid  of  the  old  issues  in  this  way,  what  guaranty 
4a  we  give  for  better  faith,  in  the  redemption  of  the  next 
Sa«ttes  ?  Again,  many  ©f  the  notes  have  the  express  prom- 
ise on  their  face,  that  they  shall  be  funded  in  eight  per  cent 
Istmds.  When  ?  The  plain  import  is,  and  so  understood  by 
-.sAt&t  the  time,  of  their  issue,  that  it  may  be  done  at  any 
^aeae  before  the  day  fixed  on  the  face  of  the  note  for  its 
payment.  With  what  semblance  of  good  faith  then,  does 
ike  government  before  that  time^  compel  the  holder,  to  re- 
ceive a  four  per  cent  bond,  or  lose  the  whole  debt?  and 
wkat  better  is  this  than  repudiation  ?  When  was  it  ever 
before  attempted  by  any  government,  to  compel  the  fund- 
ing of  almost  the  entire  paper  currency  of  a  country, 
saosoimting  to  seven  or  eight  hundred  millions  of  dollars  in 
,'  days  ?  This  is  certainly  a  new  chapter  in  financiering. 

The  country  expected  the  imposition  of  a  heavy  tax,  and 
all  patriotic  citizens  were  prepared  to  pay  it  cheerfully  at 
aiiy  reasonable  sacrifice;  but  repudiation  and  bad  faith 
were  not  expected,  and  the  authors  of  it  cannot  beheld 
-trwiltless. 

The  expiring  Congress  took  the  precaution  to  discuss  this 

are  in  secret  session  ;  so  that  the  individual  act  of  the 

representative  could  not  reach   his  constituents,  and    none 

Id  be  annoyed  during  its  consideration  by  the  murmurs 

■ublic  disapprobation  being  echoed  back  into  the  Legis- 

e  Hall.     And    to  make   assurance    doubly  sure,  they 

fixed  the  day    for  the    assembling  of  their  successors,  at  a 

e  too    late,  to  remedy  the  evil,    or  afford   adequate  re- 

ire*s  for  the  wrong. 

'JTkem  secret  sessions  of  Congress  are  becoming  a  blighting 
•oaree  to/the  country.  They  are  used  as  a  convenient  mode 
mf  covering  up  from  the  people,  such  acts  or  expressions  of 


their  representatives  as  will  not  bear  investigation  in  the 
the  light  of  day.  Almost  every  act  of  usurpation  of  pow- 
er, or  of  bad  faith,  has  been  conceived,  brought  forth  and 
nurtured,  in  secret,  session.  If  I  mistake  not  the  British 
Parliament  never  discussed  a  single  measure  in  secret  session 
during  the  whole  period  of  the  Crimean  War.  But  if  it  is 
necessary  to  discuss  a  few  important  military  measures, 
such  as  may  relate  to  the  movement  of  armies,  &c,  in  se- 
cret session,  it  does  not  follow  that  discussions  of  questions 
pertaining  to  the  currency,  the  suspension  of  the  writ  of 
Habeas  Corpus,  and  the  like,  should  all  be  conducted  in  se- 
cret session.  The  people  should  require  all  such  measures 
to  be  discussed  with  open  doors,  and  the  press  should  have 
the  liberty  of  reporting  and  freely  criticising  the  acts  of 
our  public  servants.  Jn  this  way  the  reflection  of  the 
popular  will  back  upon  the  reprentative,  would  generally 
cause  the  defeat  of  such  unsound  measures,  as  those  which 
are  now  fastened  upon  the  country  in  defiance  of  the  will 
of  the  people. 

But  dismissing  the  past  and  looking  to  the  future,  {he  in- 
quiry presented  for  our  consideration  is,  how.  shall  the  State 
authorities  act  in  the  management  of  the  finances  of  the 
State"?  As  the  Confederate  States  Treasury  notes  consti- 
tute the  currency  of  the  country,  the  State  has  been  obliged 
to  receive  and  pay  them  out ;  and  she  must  continue  to  do 
so,  as  long  as  they  remain  the  only  circulating  medium. 
The  present  Legislature  has  very  wisely  adopted  the  poli- 
cy, in  the  present  depreciated  condition  of  the  currency,  of 
collecting  by  taxation  a  sufficient  sum  in  currency,  to  pay 
the  current  appropriations  of  the  State  Government ;  in- 
stead  of  adding  them  to  the  debt  of  the  State  to  be  paid  in 
future  upon  the  gold  basis.  If  the  State  issues  her  own 
bonds  and  puts  them  upon- the  market,  or  if  she  issues  her 
own  Treasury  notes  redeemable  at  a  future  day  in  her 
bonds,  she  adds  the  amount  so  issued  to  her  permanent  in- 
debtedness ;  and  defeats  the  policy  of  paying  as  she  goes  ; 
as  her  own  bonds  or  notes,  would  then  be  out,  and  could 
not  b^  redefined  with  the  Confederate  note's  when  received 
into  her  Treasury 

If  the  State  receives  inpayment  of  taxes  the  present 
Confederate  Treasury  notes,  they  will  be  reduced  in  amount 
one  third  by  act  of  Congress  after  1st  April  next,  and  the 
Siate  receiving  them  at  par  pays  a  Confederate  Tax  of 
33J  per  cent  upon  all  monies  that  pass  through  her  Treasu- 
ry.    This  of  course  can  not  be  submitted  to. 

The  repudiation  policy  of  Congress,  seems  therefore  to 
have  left  us  but  one  alternative  ;  and  that  is  to  receive  and 
pay  out  only  such  issues  of  Confederate  notes,  as  under  the 
acts  of  Congress  pass  at  par,  without  the  deduction  of 
33i  or  any  other  per  cent.     But  as  we  are  obliged  to  have 


10 

funds  before  the  tape  wHhen  the  new  issues  of  Confederate, 
notes  can  go  into  circulation,  the  question  presented  is 
how  shall  we  supply  the  Treasury  in  the  mean  time.  In 
my  judgment  the  proper  plan  will  be  to  issue  Stale  Treasu- 
ry notes,  payable  on  the  25th  day  of  December  next  at  the 
Treasury,  and  in  each  of  the  more  important  cities  of  this 
State  in  Confederate  Treasury  notes,  of  such  issue  as  may 
be  made  after  1st  April  next,  to  be  used  as  circulating  me- 
dium. This  enables  the  State  to  anticipate  the  new  issues, 
and  use  them  in  advance  of  their  circulation  by  Confede- 
rate authority.  The  new  Georgia  Treasury  notes  of  this 
issue,  would  be  just  as  good,  as  the  new  issue  of  Confede- 
rate notes  ;  because  payable  in  them,  and  would  be  as  cur- 
rent in  payment  of  debts.  The  act  should  provide  that  all 
taxes  hereafter  due  the  State  for  this  year,  shall  be  payable 
in  the  Confederate  Treasury  notes  of  the  new  issue,  and 
that  they  shall  be  deposited  in  the  Treasury,  when  collec- 
ted, to  redeem  the  State  notes  payable  in  them.  The  act 
should  also  provide  that  the  State  notes  shall  be  returned 
and  the  Confederate  notes  received  in  place  of  them  with- 
in three  months  after  they  are  due,  or  that  the  State  will 
no  longer  be  liable  for  their  payment.  This  would  pre- 
vent holders  from  laying  them  away,  and  refusing  to  bring 
them  in  for  payment  when  due,  according  to  the  terms  of 
the  c'ontract.  As  the  State  tax  is  not  due  till  next  fall, 
there  will  be  an  abundant  supply  of  the  new  Confederate 
notes  in  circulation  by  that  time,  to  obviate  all  difficulty  in 
obtaining  them  by  our  people  to  pay  the  tax. 

I  recommend  the  passage  of  a  joint  resolution,  authoriz- 
ing the  Governor  to  have  funded  in  the  six  per  cent  bonds, 
provided  for  by  the  act  of  Congress,  all  Confederate  notes 
which  may  remain  in  the  Treasury  ;  or  may  be  in  the 
hands  of  any  of  the  financial  agents  of  the  State  ;  after  the 
first  day,  of  April  next ;  and  to  sell  and  dispose  of  such 
bonds  at  their  market  value  in  currency,  which  can  be 
made  available  in.  payments  to  be  made  by  the  Treasury  ; 
and  to  credit  the  Treasurer  with  any  losses  that  may  ac- 
crue by  reason  ©f  the  failure  of  the  bonds  to  bring  par  in 
the  market. 

orphans'  estates. 

On  account  of  the  present  depreciated  value  of  the  Con- 
federate securities  I  recommend  the  repeal  of  the  law  which 
authorizes  Executors,  Administrators  and  Trustees  to  in- 
vest the  funds  of  those  whom  they  represent  in  thes?  secu- 
rities. As  the  law  stands  it  enables  unscrupulous  fiduciary 
agents,  to  perpetrate  frauds  upon  innocent  orphans,  and 
other  helpless  persons  represented  by  them  ;  and  iii  effect 
compels  orphans  and  those  represented  by  trustees,  to  in- 
vest their  whole  estates,  in  government  bonds,  which  no 
other  class  is  required  to  do. 


11 

FURLOUGHS   REFUSED. 

On  the  27th  of  February,  when  I  issued  my  Proclama- 
tion, calling  you  into  extra  session,  I  telegraphed  the  Sec- 
retary of  War  ;  and  asked  that  furloughs  be  granted,  to  mem- 
bers in  military  service,  to  attend  the  session  ;  and  received 
a  reply  stating  that  it  had  "  been  concluded  not  to  grant  fur- 
loughs to  attend  the  session",  that,  "  officers  so  situated  are 
entitled  to  resign  and  may  so  elect". 

I  regret  this  determination  of  the  Confederate  govern- 
ment ;  as  it  places  our  gallant  officers,  who  have  been  elec- 
ted by  the  people  to  represent  them,  and  to  whom,  as  well 
as  their  predecessors  similarly  situated,  furloughs  were  nev- 
er before  denied,  in  a  position  where  it  costs  them  their 
commissions  to  attempt  to  discharge  their  duties,  as  Repre- 
sentatives of  the  people. 

THE  NEW  MILITIA  ORGANIZATION  AND  CONSCRIPTION. 

Since  your  adjournment  in  December,  the  Adjutant  and 
Inspector  General,  under  my  direction,  has  done  all  in  his 
power  to  press  forward  the  organization  ^of  the  Militia  of 
the  State,  in  conformity  to  the  act  passed  for  that  purpose ; 
and  I  have  the  pleasure  to  state,  that  the  enrollments  are 
generally  made  ;  except  in  a  few  localities,  where  proximi- 
ty to  the  enemy  has  prevented  it ;  and  the  organizations  will 
soon  be.  completed. 

At  this  stage  in  our  proceedings,  we  are  met  with  formi- 
dable obstacles  ;  thrown  in  our  way,  by  the  late  act  of  Con- 
gress ;  which  subjects  those  between  17  and  50,  to  enroll- 
ment as  Conscripts,  for  Confederate  service.  This  act  of 
Congress  proposes  to  take  from  the  State,  as  was  done  on  a 
former  occasion,  her  entire  military  force,  who  belong  to  the 
active  list,  and  to  leave  her  without  a  force  in  the  different 
counties  sufficient  to  execute  her  laws  or  suppress  servile 
insurrection. 

Our  Supreme  Court  has  ruled,  that  the  Confederate  gov- 
ernment, has  the  power,  to  raise  armies  by  Conscription  ; 
but  it  nas  not  decided,  that  it  also  has  the  power,  to  enroll 
the  whole  populatiop*of  the  State,  who  remain  at  home,  so 
as  to  place  the  whole  people,  under  the  military  control  of 
the  Confederate  government  ;  and  thereby,  take  from  the 
States  all  command  over  their  own  citizens,  to  execute  their 
own  laws;  and  place  the  internal  police  regulations  of  the 
States,  in  the  hands  of  the  President.  It  is  one  thing  to 
"  raise  armies",  and  another,  and  fjuite  a  differed  thing,  to 
put  the  whole  population  at  home  under  military  law,  and 
compel  every  man  to  obtain  a  military  detail,  upon  such 
terms  as  the  central  government  .may  dictate,  and  to  carry  a 
military  pass  in  his  pocket,  while  he  cultivates  his  farm,  or 
attends  to  his  other  necessary  avocations  at  home. 

Neither  a  planter  nor  an  overseer  engaged  upon  the  farm, 


12 

nor  a  blacksmith  making  agricultural  implements,  nor  a  mil- 
ler grinding  for  the  people  at  home,  belongs  to,  or  consti- 
tutes any  part  of  the  armies  of  the  Confederacy  ;  and  there  is 
not  the  shadow  of  Constitutional  power, .vested  in  the  Con- 
federate government,  for  conscribing,  and  putting  these 
classes,  and  others  engaged  in  home  pursuits,  under  milita- 
ry rule,  while  they  remain  at  home,  to  discharge  these  du- 
ties. If  Conscription  were  Constitutional,  as  a  means  of 
raising  armies  by  the  Confederate  government,  it  could  not 
be  Constitutional  to  conscribe  those  not  actually  needed,  and 
to  be  employed  in  the  army  ;  and  the  Constitutional  power  to 
"raise  armies", could  never  carry  with  it,the  power  in  Congress 
to  conscribe  the  whole  people;  who  are  not  needed  for  the  ar- 
mies ;  but  are  left  at  home,  because  more  useful  there  ;  and 
place  them  uwder  military  government,  and  compel  them  to 
get  military  details  to  plough  in  their  fields,  shoe  their  farm 
horses,  or  go  to  mill. 

Conscription  carried  to  this  extent,  is  the  essence  of  mili- 
tary despotism  ;  placing  all  civil  rights,  in  a  state  of  subor- 
dination to  military  power  ;  and  putting  the  personal  free- 
dom of  each  individual  in  civil  life,  at  the  will  of  the  chief 
of  the  military  power.  But  it  may  be  said  that  Conscrip- 
tion may  act  upon  one  class  as  legally  as  another :  and  that 
all  classes  are  equally  subject  to  it.  This  is  undoubtedly 
true.  It  the  government  has  a  right  to  conscribe  lit  all,  it 
has  a  right  to  conscribe  persons  of  all  classes,  till  it  has  rais- 
ed enough  to  supply  its  armies.  But  it  has  no  right  to  go 
farther  and  conscribe  all,  who  are  by  its  own  consent  to  re- 
main at  home,  to  make  supplies.  If  it  considers  supplies  ne- 
cessary, somebody  must  make  them  ;  and  those  who  do  it, 
being  no  part  of  the  army,  should  be  exempt  irorn  Conscrip- 
tion, and  the  annoyance  of  military  dictation,  while  engaged 
in  civil,  and  not  military  pursuits. 

If  all  between  17  and  50  arc  to  be  enrolled  and  placed  in 
constant  military  service,  we  must  conquer  the  enemy  while 
we  are  consuming  our  present  crop  of  provisions,  ok  we  are 
ruined  ;  as  it  wiil  be  impossible  for  the  old  men  over  50,  and 
the  boys  under  17,  to  make  supplies  enough,  to  feed  our  ar- 
mies and  people,  another  year.  I  think  every  practical  man 
in  the  Confederacy  who  knows  anything  about  our  agricul- 
tural interests,  and  resources,  will  readily  admit  this. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  the  intention  to  put  those 
between  17  and  IS,  and  between  45  and  50,  into  service,  as 
soldiers,  but  to  leave  them  at  home  to  produce  supplies,  and 
occasionally  to  do  police  and  other  duties,  within  the  State, 
which  properly  belong  to  the  Militia  of  a  State  ;  or  in  other 
words,  if  it  is  the  intention  simply  to  take  the  control  of 
them  from  the  State,  so  as  to  deprive  her  of  all  power,  a*nd 
leave  her  without  sufficient  force  to  execute  her  own  laws, 
or  suppress  servile  insurrection ;  and  place  the  whole  Militia 


13 

of  the  State,  not  needed  for  constant  service  in  the  Confed- 
erate armies,  under  the  control  of  the  President,  while  en- 
gaged in  their  civil  pursuits,  the  act  is  unconstitutional  and 
oppressive,  and  ought  not  to  be  executed. 

If  the  act  is  executed  in  this  State,  it  deprives  her  of  her 
whole  active  Militia,  as  Congress  has  so  shaped  it  as  to  in- 
clude the  identical  persons  embraced  in  the  act  passed  at 
your  late  session,  and  to  transfer  the  control  of  them  all  from 
the  State  to  the  Confederate  government. 

The  State  has  already  -en rolled  these  persons  under  the 
solemn  act  of  her  Legislature,  for  her  own  defense,  and  it  is 
a  question  for  you  to  determine,  whether  the  necessities -of 
the  State  ;  her  sovereignty  and  dignity,  and  justice  to  those 
who  are  to  be  affected  by  the  act,  do  not  forbid,  that  she 
should  permit  her  organization  to  be  broken*  up,  and  her 
means  of  self-preservation  to  be  taken  out  other  hands.  If 
this  is  done,  what  will  beour  condition  ?  1  prefer  to  answer 
by  adopting  the  language  of  the  present  able  and  patriotic 
Governor  of  Virginia  :  "A  sovereign  State  without  a  sol- 
dier, and  without  the  dignity  of  strength — stripped  of  all 
her  men,  and  with  only  the  form  and  pageantry  of  power — 
would  indeed,  be  nothing  more  than  a  wretched  dependen- 
cy, to  which  I  should  grieve  to  see  our  proud  old  Common- 
wealth reduced". 

I  may  be  reminded  that  the  enemy  hrs  three  times  as 
many  white  men,  able  to  bear  arms,  as  we  have,  and  that  it  is 
necessary  to  take  all  between  the  ages  above  mentioned,  or 
we  cannot  k*eep  as  many  men  in  the  field  as  he  does. 

If  the  result  depended  upon  our  ability  to  do  this,  we 
must  necessarily  fail.  But,  fortunately  for  us,  this  is  not 
the  case.  While  they  have  the  advantage  in  numbers,  we 
have  other  advantages,  which,  if  properly  improved,  they 
can  never  overcome.  We  are  the  invaded  part}',  in  the 
right,  struggling  for  all  we  have  ;  and  for  all  that  we  expect 
our  posterity  to  inherit.  This  gives  us  great  moral  advan- 
tage, over  a  more  powerful  enemy  ;  who,  as  the  invaders,, 
are  in  the  wrong  ;  and  are  fighting  for  conquest  and  power. 
We  have  the  inner  and  shorter  lines  of  defense ;  while  they 
have  the  longer  and  much  more  difficult  ones.  For  in- 
stance, if  we  desire  to  reinforce  Dalton,  from  Wilmington, 
Charleston,  Savannah,  and  Mobile,  or  to  reinforce  either  of 
those  points,  from  Dalton,  we  can  do  so  by  throwing  troops 
rapidly  over  a  short  line  from  one  point  to  the  other.  If  the 
enemy  wishes  to  reinforce  Charleston  or  Chattanooga,  from 
Washington  or  New  Orleans,  he  must  throw  his  troops  a 
long  distance  around,  almost  upon  the  circumference  of  a 
circle;  while  We  meet  them  with  our  reinforcements,  by 
throwing  them  across  the  diameter  of  a  semi-circle.  This 
difference  in  our  favor,  is  as  great  as  four  to  one,  and  enables. 


14 

us,  if  our  troops  are  properly  handled,  to  repel  their  assaults, 
with  little  more  than  one-fourth  their  number. 

In  consideration  of  these,  and  numerous  other  advantages, 
which  an  invaded  people,  united  and  determined  to  be  free, 
always  has  ;  it  is  not  wise  policy  for  us  to  undertake  to  keep 
in  the  field  as  large  a  number  as.  the  enemy  has. 

It  is  the  duty  of  those  in  authority,  in  a  country  engaged 
in  a  war,  which  calls  for  all  the  resources  at  command,  to 
consider  well,  what  proportion  of  the  whole  population,  can 
safely  be  kept  under  arms.  In  our  present  condition,  sur- 
rounded by  the  enemy,  and  our  ports  blockaded,  so  that  we 
can  place  but  little  dependence,  upon  foreign  supplies,  we 
are  obliged  to  keep  a  sufficient  number  of  men  in  the  agricul- 
tural fields,  to,  make  supplies  for  our  troops  under  arms,  and 
their  families  at  home,  or  we  must  ultimately  fail. 

The  policy  which  would  compel  all  our  men  to  go  to  the 
Military  field,  and  leave  our  farms  uncultivated,  and  our 
workshops  vacant,  would  be  the  most  fatal  and  unwise  that 
could  be  adopted.  In  that  case,  the  enemy  need  only  avoid 
battle,  and  continue  the  war,  till  we  consume  the  supplies 
now  on  hand,  and  we  would  be  completely  in  their  power. 
There  is  a  certain  proportion  of  a  people  in  our  condi- 
tion, who  can  remain  under  arms,  and  the  balance  of  the 
population  at  home  can  support  them.  So  long  as  that 
proportion  has  not  been  reached,  more  may  safely  be  taken  ; 
but  when  it  is  reached,  every  man  taken  from  the  field  of 
production,  and  placed  as  a  consumer  in  the  military  field, 
makes  us  that  much  weaker  ;  and  if  we  go  far  beyond  the 
proportion,  failure  and  ruin  are  inevitable ;  as  the  army  must 
soon  disband,  when  it  can  no  longer  be  supplied  with  the 
necessaries  of  life.  There  is  reason  to  fear,  that  those  in  au- 
thority have  not  made  safe  calculations  upon  this  point,  and 
that  they  do  not  fully  appreciate  the  incalculable  impor- 
tance, of  the  agricultural  interests,  in  this  struggle. 

We  are  able  to  keep  constantly  under  arms  two  hundred 
thousand  effective  men,  and  to  support  and  maintain  that 
force  by  our  own  resources  and  productions,  for  twenty 
years  to  come.  No  power  nor  State  can  ever  be  conquered 
so  long  as  it  can  maintain  that  number  of  good  troops.  If 
the  enemy  should  bring  a  million  against  us,  let  us  remem- 
ber, that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  whipping  the  fight  with- 
out fighting  it,  and  avoiding  pitched  battles  and  unnecessa- 
ry collisions;  let  us  give  this  vast  force  time  to'  melt  away 
under  the  heat  of  summer  and  the  snows  of  winter  ;'  as  did 
Xerxes'  army  in  Greece  and  Napoleon's  in  Russia,  and  the 
enemy's  resources  and  strength  will  exhaust  when  so  prod- 
igally used,  much  more  rapidly  than  ours,  when  properly 
economised*  In  properly  economising  our  strength  and 
husbanding  our  resources,  lie  our  best  hope  of  success. 
Instead  of  making  constant  new  drafts  upon  the  agricul- 


15 

tural  and  mechanical  labor  of  the  country,  for  recruits  for 
the  army,  to  swell  our  numbers  beyond  our  present  muster 
rolls,  which  must  prove  our  ruin,  if  our  provisions  fail,  I 
respectfully  submit  that  it  would  be  wiser  to  put  the  troops 
info  the  army,  and  leave  men  enough  at  home  to  support 
them.  In  other  words,  compel  the  thousands  of  young  offi- 
cers in  gold  lace  and  brass  buttons,  who  are  constantly 
seen  crowding  our  railroads  and  hotels,  many  of  whom  can 
seldom  be  found  at  their  posts  ;  and  the  thousands  of  strag- 
gling soldiers  who  are  absent  without  leave,  or,  by  the 
favoritism  of  officers,  whose  names  are  on  the  pay  rolls,  and 
who  are  not  producers  at  home,  to  remain  at  their  places  in 
the  army.  This  is  justice  alike  to  the  country,  to  the  tax 
payers,  to  the  gallant  officers  who  stand  firmly  at  the  post 
of  duty,  and  the  gallant  soldiers  who  seldom  or  never  get 
furloughs,  but  are  always  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight.  When 
they  are  enduring  and  suffering  so  much,  why  should  the 
favorites  of  power  and  those  of  their  comrades  who  seek  to 
avoid  duty  and  danger,  be  countenanced  or  tolerated  at 
home,  while  their  names  stand  upon  the  muster  rolls? 

If  all  who  are  able  for  duty,  and  who  are  now  nominally 
in  service  drawing  pay  from  the  Government,  are  compell- 
ed to  do  their  duty  faithfully,  there  will  be  no  need  of  coni- 
pclling  men  over  45  to  leave  their  homes,  or  of  disbanding 
the  State  militia  to  place  more  men  under  the  President's 
control. 

CONFLICT  WITH  THE  CONFEDERATE  GOVERNMENT. 

But  it  may  be  said  that  an  attempt  to  maintain  the  rights 
of  the  State  will  produce  conflict  with  the  Confederate 
Government,  I  am  aware  that  there  are  those  who,  from 
motives  not  necessary  to  be  here  mentioned,  are  ever  ready 
to  raise  the  cry  of  conflict,  and  to  criticise  and  condemn  the 
action  of  Georgia,  in  every  case  where  her  constituted  au- 
thorities protest  against  the  encroachments  of  the  central 
power,  and  seek  to  maintain  her  dignity  and  sovereignty  as 
a  State,  and  the  constitutional  rights  and  liberties  of  her 
people. 

Those  who  are  unfriendly  to  State  sovereignty  and  desire 
to  consolidate  all  power  in  the  hands  of  the  Confederate 
Government,  hoping  to  promote  their  undertaking  by  ope- 
rating upon  the  fears  of  the  timid,  after  each  new  aggres- 
sion upon  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  States,  fill  the 
newspaper  presses  with  the  cry  of  conflict,  and  warn  the 
people  to  beware  of  those  who  seek  to  maintain  their  con- 
stitutional rights,  as  agitators  or  -partisans  who  may  embar- 
rass the  Confederate  Government  in  the  prosecution  of  the 
wa  r. 

Let  not  the  people  be  deceived  by  this  false  clamor.  It 
is  the  same  cry  of  conflict  which  the  Lincoln  government 


16 

raised  against  all  \yho  defended  the  rights  of  the  Southern 
States  against  its  tyranny.  It  is  the  cry  which  the  usur- 
pers of  power  have  ever  raised  against  those  who  rebuke 
their  encroachments  and  refuse  to  vield  to  their  aa-gres- 
sions. 

When  did  Georgia  embarrass,  the  Confederate  Govern- 
ment in  any  matter  pertaining  to  the  vigorous  prosecution 
of  the  war?  When  did  she  fail-  to  furnish  more  than  her 
full  quota  of  troops,  when  she  was  called  upon  as  a  State 
by  the  proper  Confederate  authority  ?  And  when  did  her 
gallant  sons  ever  quail  before  the  enemy,  or  fail  nobly  to 
illustrate  her  character  upon  the  battle  field  ? 

She  can  not  only  repel  the  attacks  of  her  enemies  on  the 
field' of  deadly  conflict,  but  she  can  as  proudly  repel  the 
assaults  of  those  who,  ready  to  bend  the  knee  to  power  for 
position  and  patronage,  set  themselves  up  to  criticise  her 
conduct,  and  she  can  confidently  challenge  them  to  point  to 
a  single  instance  in  which  she  lias  failed  to  fill  a  requisition 
for  troops  made  upon  her  through  the  regular  constitution- 
al channel.  To  the  very  last  requisition  made  she  respon- 
ded with  over  double  the  number  required. 

She  stands  ready  at  all  times  to  do  her  whole  duty  to  the 
cause  and  to  the  Confederacy,  but  while  she  does  this,  she 
will  never  cease  to  require  that  her  constitutional  rights  be 
respected  and  the  liberties  of  her  people  preserved. 
While  she  deprecates  all  conflict  with  the  Confederate  Gov- 
ernment, if  to  require  these  be  conflict,  the  conflict  will  never 
end  till  the  object  is  attained. 

•  "For  freedom's  battle  once  begun, 

Bequeathed  by  bieediugsire  to  son, 
Though  baffled  oft  in  ever  won,'' 

will  be  emblazoned  in  letters  of  living  light  upon  her  proud 
banners,  until  State  sovereignty  and  constitutional  liberty, 
as  well  as  Confederate  independence,  are  firmly  established. 

SUSPENSION  OF  THE  HABEAS  CORPUS. 

I  cannot  withhold  the  expression  of  the  deep  mortifica- 
tion I  feel  at  the  late  action  of  Congress  in  attempting  to 
suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus,  and  to 
confer  upon  the  President  powers  expressly  denied  to  him 
by  the  Constitution  of  the  Confederate  States.  Under  pre- 
text of  a  necessity  which  our  whole  people  know  does  not 
exist  in  this  case,  whatever  may  have  been  the  motives,  our 
Congress  with  tlie  assent  andiit  the  request  of  the  Execu- 
tive, has  struck  a  fell  blow  at  the  liberties  of  the  people  of 
these  States. 

The  Constitution  of  the  Confederate  States  declares  that, 
"The  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  shall  not  be  sus- 
pended, unless  when  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion  the 
public  safety  may  require  it."     The  power  to  suspend  the 


MESSAGE 


OF 


IMS  EXCELLENCY  JOSEPH  E.    BROWN, 


7  M     < 


TO  THE 


EXTRA  SESSION  OF  THE  LEGISLATURE, 


CONVENED  MARCH  10TO,  1864, 


Upon  the  Currency  Act;  Secret  sessions  of  Con- 
gress; The  late    Conscription  Act  ;  The  Un- 
constitutionality of  the  Act  suspending 
the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus,  in   cases  of  illegal  ar- 
RESTS MADKliY  THE  PRESIDENT  ; 

TlIE  CAUSES  OF    the  war  and  manner   of  CONDUCT- 
ING   it  ;    And   the   terms    upon    which   peace 

SHOULD  BE  SOUGHT,  &C. 


BOUGHTON,  NISBET,  BARNES  &  MOORE,  State  Pkixter 

MILLEDGEVir.I.E,    GA., 


1864. 


MESSAGE. 


EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT,    ) 
MlLLEDGEVlLLE,  Ga.,  March  10th  1S64.     } 

To  ike  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  : 

The  patriotic  zeal  exhibited  by  you  at  your  late  session, 
forthe»promotion  of  the  interestand  protection  of  theiiberties 
•of  the  country,  and  the  personal  kindness  and  official  cour- 
tesy which  I  received  at  your  hands,  and  for  which  I  renew 
my  thanks,  have  satisfied  me  that  laying  aside  all  past  par- 
ty names,  issues,  and  strifes,  your  object,  as  legislators  is  to 
discharge  faithfully  your  official  duties,  and  to  sacrifice  all 
private  interests  and  personal  preferences,  to  the  public 
good.  In  view  of  these  considerations,  I  feel  that  I  can  re- 
ly upon  your  counsels  as  a  tower  of  strength  in  time  of 
darkness  and  gloom.  I  have  therefore  convened  you  that  I 
may  have  the  benefit  of  your  advice  and  assistance,  at  this 
critical  juncture  in  our  State  and  Confederate  affairs. 

TRANSPORTATION  OF  CORN  TO  INDIGENT   SOLDIERS   FAMILIES. 

Since  your  adjournment  experience  has  shown  that  it  is 
not  possible  without  assistance  from  the  State,  which   will 
require  further  legislation,    for  the    agents  of  the  counties 
where  there  is  great  scarcity  of  provisions,  to  secure    trans- 
portation for  the  corn  purchased  in  South  Western  and  Mid- 
dle Georgia,  to    the  places  where  it    is  needed.     To    meet 
this  difficulty,  I   respectfully  recommend  the  passage    of  a 
law,  authorizing  the  Quarter-Master  General  of  this  State; 
or  such  other   officer  as  the  Governor   may  from  time   to 
time  designate,  under  the  order  of  the  Governor,  to  take  pos- 
session of  and  control  any  of  the  Rail  Roads  in   the  State, 
with  their  rolling  stock,  or  any  other  available  conveyance, 
and  require  that  corn  or  other  provisions,  for  the  needy  or 
for  the  county  agents  for  soldiers  families,  be  transported  in 
preference  to  all  other  articles  or  things  ;  except  the  troops, 
and  the  supplies  necessary  for  the  support  of  the  armies  of 
the  Confederate    States,  and  that  the  act  provide  for   the 
payment  of  just  compensation,  for  the  use  of  such  means  of 
transportation,    while  in  possession    of  the  authorized  offi- 
cers of  this  State — the  compensation   to  be  paid  out  of  the 
.money  already  appropriated  as   a  relief  fund,  by  the  agents. 


or  persons  at  whose  request  the  transportation  may  be  fur- 
nished. 

Experience  has  alsoproved  that  the  counties  of  North  Eas- 
tern Georgia  most  remote  from  the  Railroad  cannot  obtain 
sufficient  means  of  transportation  to  carry  the  corn  from  the 
Rail  Road  to  the  place  of  consumption.  The  scarcity  of 
teams  is  owing  to  the  fact  that  their  horses  have  been 
taken  for  cavalry  service,  and  their  oxen  have  been  im- 
pressed for  beef  for  the  army.  Finding  that  there  was 
likely  to  be  much  suffering  in  that  Section  for  bread  for 
soldiers'  families,  I  ordered  the  energetic  Quartet  Master 
General  of  the  State,  to  purchase,  teams  and  wagons  by 
drafts  upon  the  military  fund,  and  aid  those  most  destitute, 
and  most  remote  from  the  Rail  Road  in  the  transportation 
of  the  corn.  If  this  action  is  approved  by  the  Legislature, 
as  I  trust  it  will  be,  the  teams  now  about  ready  for  use, 
can  be  employed  in  this  service  for  a  portion  of  the  year. 
Knot  approved  they  will  at  any  time  command  more  in 
the  market  than  they  cost  the  State,  if  not  needed  for  mili- 
tary uses. 

RELIEF   FUND    FOR    SOLDIERS'    FAJfiLIES. 

I  am  satisfied  that  the  indigent  families  of  soldiers,  in 
many  of  the  counties  of  this  State,  are  not  receiving  the 
benefits  to  which  they  are  entitled,  on  account  of  the  neg- 
lect or  mismanagement  of  the  Inferior  Courts.  Six  millions 
of  dollars  have  been  appropriated  for  this  purpose,  for  the 
present  year,  which  if  properly  applied,  is  sufficient  to  pre- 
vent any  actual  suffering.  Complaints  come  up  constantly 
that  adequate  provisions  are  not  made  for  the  needy.  In 
many  cases,  I  have  no  doubt,  these  complaints  ar^  well 
founded.  As  evidence  of  the  neglect  of  part  of  the  Qourts, 
it  may  be  proper  to  state,  tKat  great  as  the  destitution  is 
among  those  entitled  to  the  fund,  fhe  amount  due  for  the 
last  quarter  of  last  year,  has  not  in  some  cases  been  appli- 
ed for.  Some  courts  have  not  yet  sent  in  their  reports  of 
the  number  entitled  for  the  present  year;  so  as  to  enable 
me  to  have  the  calculation  made;  and  the  amount  due  each 
county  ascertained;  while  many  of  the  counties  have  made 
no  application  for  any  part  of  the  fund  appropriated  for  this 
year.    . 

While  the  Governor  has  power,  to  require  the  courts  to 
make  reports,  of  the  disposition  made  of  the  fund,  in  cases 
where  he  suspects  it  is  being  improperly  applied;  and  to 
withhold  payments  to  the  courts  in  such  cases;  he  has  no 
power  to  compel  the  courts  to  do  their  duty,  nor  can  he 
take  the  fund  from  them  and  appoint  any  other  person  or 
agent  to  distribute  it  among  those  for  whom  it  is  intended. 
If  the  courts  fail  to  act,  the  law  makes  no  other  provision 
for  the  distribution  of  the  fund.  Unless  some  better  plan 
is  adopted,  I  am  satisfied  the  objects  of  the  Legislature,  will 


be  very  imperfectly  carried  out,  in  many  of  the  counties; 
and  the  needy  will  not  receive  the  benefits  of  the  liberal 
provision  made  for  them,  by  the  appropriation.  As  it  may 
be  necessary  to  provide  for  the  appointment  of  active  reli- 
able agents  in  the  counties,  to  assist  the  courts,  or  to  take 
charge  of  the  fund  in  case  of  neglect,  or  mismanagement 
by  them;  I  respectfully  suggest  that  provision  should  be 
made  for  commissioning  all  such,  as  officers  of  this  State,  so 
as  to  protect  them  against  conscription.  It  will  ,be  im- 
possible to  relieve  the  needy,  if  our  most  valuable  county 
agents,  are  taken  from  the  discharge  of  their  important  du- 
ties by  the  enrolling  officers  of  the  Confederacy. 

Provision  should  also  be  made  for  the  removal  from  of- 
fice, of  all  Justices  of  the  Inferior  Courts,  who  neglect  or 
refuse  to  discharge  their  duties  promptly  and  faithfully. 

COTTON    PLANTING. 

Having  on  former  occasions,  brought  the  question  of  far- 
ther restriction  of  Cott-on  planting  to  the  attention  of  the 
General  Assembly,  I  feel  a  delicacy  in  again  recurring  to 
that  subject.  The  present  prices  of  provisions,  and  the 
great  importance  of  securing  a  continued  supply  of  the  ne- 
cessaries of  life,  are  my  excuse  for  again  earnestly  recom- 
mending, that  the  law  be  so  changed,  as  to  make  it  highly 
penal,  for  any  person  to  plant  or  cultivate  in  Cotton,  more 
than  one  quarter  of  an  acre  to  the  hand,  till  the  end  of  the 
war. 

This  additional  restraint  is  not  necessary,  to  control  the 
conduct  of  the  more  liberal  and  patriotic  portion  of  our  peo- 
ple; but  there  are  those,  who  for  the  purpose  of  making  a 
little  more  money,  will  plant  the  last  seed  allowed  by  law, 
without  stopping  to  enquire,  whether  they  thereby,  endan- 
ger the  liberties  of  the  people,  and  the  independence  of  the 
Confederacy. 

To  control  the  conduct  of  this- class  of  persons,  and  to  the 
extent  of  our  ability  to  provide  against  the  possible  contin- 
gency of  a  failure  of  supplies  in  future,  I  feel  it  to  be  an 
imperative  duty,  again  to  urge  upon  your  consideration,  the 
importance  of  the  legislation  above  recommended. 

ILLEGAL   DISTILLATION. 

I  beg  leave  again  to  call  the  attention  of  the  General  As- 
sembly, to  the  illegal  distillation  of  grain  into  spirituous  li- 
quors. So  great  are  the  profits  realized  by  those  engaged 
in  this  business,  that  the  law  is  evaded  in  every  way  that 
■  ingenuity  can  devise;  and  I  am  satisfied  that  the  evil  can  not 
lie  effectually  suppressed  without  farther  and  more  string- 
ent legislation.  Some  of  the  Judges  have  ruled,  that  the 
•act  passed  at  your  last  Session,  does  not  give  them  author- 
ity to  draw  and  compel  the  attendance  of  a  jury,  out  01  the 
xegular  term  time  of  the  Court,  to  try  the  question  of  nuis- 


6 

ance;  while  some  public  officers  have  shown  no  disposition 
to  act,  for  fear  of  incurring  the  ill-will  of  persons  of  wealth 
and  influence,  who  are  engaged  in  the  daily  violation  of  the 
law. 

Distillers  in  some  parts  of  the  State,  are  paying  ten  dol-    . 
lars  per  bushel  for  Corn  to   convert  into  Whiskey;  while 
soldiers'  families,  and  other  poor  persons  are  suffering  for 
bread. 

I  renew  the  expression  of  my  firm  conviction,  that  the 
evil  can  only  be  effectually  suppressed  by  the  seizure  of  the 
stills.  We  now  need  copper  for  the  use  of  the  State  Road, 
and  for  military  uses,  and  I  earnestly  request,  that  an  act 
be  passed,  authorizing  the  Governor,  to  impress  all  the 
stills,  in  the  State,  which  he  has  reasonable  ground  to  sus- 
pect have  been  used  in  violation  of  the  law;  and  convert 
them  into  such  material,  for  the  Road,  and  implements  of 
war,  as  the  State  may  need;  and  that  he  be  authorized  to 
use  all  the  military  force  necessary  to  accomplish  the  ob- 
ject; and  that  provision  be  made  for  paying  the  owner  just 
compensation  for  such  stills  when  seized.  I  also  recom- 
mend that  provision  be  made  for  annulling  the  commission 
of  any-civil,  or  military  officer  of  this  State,  who  fails  to 
exercise  vigilance,  and  to  discharge  his  duty  faithfully  in 
the  execution  of  the  }aw  against  illegal  distillation. 

IMPRESSMENT    OF    PROVISIONS. 

Since  ycur  last  Session,  experience  has  proven,  that  from 
distrust  of  the  currency  or  from  other  cause,  many  planters 
have  refused  to  sell  corn,  or  other  provisions,  not  necessary 
for  their  own  use,  to  State  or  county  agents,  for  the  market 
price  when  offered,  while  soldiers'  families  have  been  suffer- 
ing for  provisions. 

I  recommend  the  enactment  of  a  law.  authorizing  State  of- 
ficers, under  the  direction  of  the  Governor,  to  make  impress- 
ments of  provisions  in  all  such  cases,  and  providing  for  the 
payment  of  just  compensation  to  the  owners  of  the  property 
impressed. 

SLAVES    ESCAPING   TO    THE    ENEMY. 

The  official  reports  of  Federal  officers,  are  said  to  show 
that  the  enemy  now  has  50,000  of  our  slaves  employed 
against  us.  If  these  50,000  able  bodied  negroes,  had  been 
carried  into  the  interior  by  their  owners,  when  the  enemy 
approached  the  locality,  where  they  were  employed;  and 
put  to  work,  clearing  land  and  making  provisions,  we 
should  to-day  have  been  50,000  stronger  and  the  enemy  that, 
much  weaker,  making  a  difference  of  100,000  in  the  present 
relative  strength  of  the  parties  to  the  struggle.  When  a 
negro  man  worth  $1,000  upon  the  gold  basis,  escapes  to  the 
enemy,  that  sum  of  the  aggregate  wealth  of  the  State,  upon 
which  she  should  receive  taxes  is  lost, — one  laborer  who 


7 

should  be  employed  in  the  production  of  provisions  is  also 
lost,  while  one  laborer,  or  one  more  armed  man,  is  added  to 
the  strength  of  the  enemy. 

It  is  therefore  unjustifiable  and  unpatriotic,  for  the  owner 
to  keep  his  negroes,  within  such  distance  of  the  enemy's 
lines  as  to  make  it  easy  for  them  to  escape.  This  should 
not  be  permitted;  and  to  prevent  it  in  future,  such  laws 
should  be  enacted,  as  may  be  necessary  to  compel  their  re- 
moval by  the  owner  in  such  case  or  to  provide  for  their  for- 
feiture to  the  State. 

No  man  has  a  right  to  so  use  his  own  property,  so  as  to 
weaken  our  strength,  diminish  our  provision  supply;  and 
add  recruits  to  the  army  of  the  enemy. 

DESERTION    OF   OUR    CAUSE   BY   REMOVALS    WITHIN     THE    EN- 
EMY'S    LINK. 

I  am  informed  that  a  number  of  persons  in  the  portion  of 
our  State,  adjoining  to  East  Tennessee,  have  lately  removed 
with  their  families  within  the  lines  of  the  enemy;  and  carri- 
ed with  them  their  movable  property.  Those  persons  have 
never  been  loyal  to  the  cause  of  the  South;  and, they  now 
avail  themselves  of  the  earliest  opportunity  to  unite  with 
the  enemies  of  their  State. 

,  I  recommend  the  enactment  of  a  law,  providing  for  the 
confiscation  of  the  property  of  all  such  persons;  and  that  all 
such  property  be  sold,  and  the  proceeds  of  the  sale,  applied 
to  the  payment  of  damages,  done  to  loyal  citizens  of  the 
same  section;  whose  property  has  been  destroyed,  by  raids 
of  the  enemy,  or  by  armed  bands  of  tories. 

I  am  also  informed,  that  some  disloyal  persons  in  that  sec- 
tion, have  deserted  from  our  armies;  or  avoiding  service  have 
left  their  families  behind,  and  gone  over  to  the  enemy,  and 
are  now  under  anus  against  us.  I  am  happy  to  learn  that 
the  number  of  such  persons  is  very  small.  I  .recommend 
the  confiscation  of  the  property  of  this  class  of  persons  also, 
and  in  case  they  have  left  families  behind,  that  are  a  charge 
to  the  county,  that  no  part  of  the  relief  fund  be  allowed 
them;  but  thai  they  be  carried  to  the  enemy's  lines,  and 
turned  over  to  those  in  whose  cause  their  husbands  now 
serve. 

I  also  recommend  the  enactment  of  such  laws,  as  shall  for- 
ever disfranchise  and  decitizenize  all  persons  of  both  classes, 
should  they  attempt  to  return  to  this  State. 

THE  CURRENCY. 

The  late  action  of  the  Congress  of  the  Confederate 
States  upon  the  subject  of  the  currency  has  rendered  fur- 
ther legislation  necessary  in  this  State  upon  that  question. 
It  can  not  be  denied  that  this  act  has  seriously  embar- 
rassed the  financial  system  of  this  Stale,  and  has  shaken 
the  confidence  of  our  people  in  either  the  justice  of  the  late 


Congress  or  its  competency  to  manage  our  financial  affairs. 
Probably  the  history  of  the  past  furnishes  few  more  strik- 
ing instances  of  unsound  policy  combined  with  bad  faith. 

The  Government  issues  its  Treasury  note  for  $100,  and 
bmds  itself  two  years  after  a  treaty  of  peace,  between  the 
Confederate  States  and  the  United  States,  to  pay  the  bear- 
er that  sum  ;  and  stipulates  upon  the  face  of  the  note,  that 
jJt  is  fundable  in  Confederate  States  stocks  or  bonds;  and 
receivable  in  payment  of  all  pubKc  dues  except  export  du- 
ties. The  Congress  while  the  war  is  still  progressing,  pas- 
ses a  statute  that  this  bill  shall  be  funded  in  about  forty  days 
or  one  third  of  it  shall  be  repudiated,  and  that  a  tax  of  ten 
per  cent  a  month  shall  be  paid  for  it  after  that  time  by  the 
holder,  and  it  shall  no  longer  be  receivable  in  payment  of 
public  dues,  and  if  it  is  not  funded  by  the  1st  of  January  next, 
the  whole  debt  is  repudiated.  Did  the  holder  take  the 
note,  with  any  such  expectation?  Was  this  the  contract, 
and  is  this  the  way  the  government  is  to  keep  its  faith  ? 
If  we  get  rid  of  the  old  issues  in  this  way,  what  guaranty 
tlo  we  give  for  better  faith,  in  the  redemption  of  the#next 
issues  ?  Again,  many  of  the  notes  have  the  express  prom- 
ise on  their  face,  that  they  shall  be  funded  in  eight  per  cent 
bonds.  When  ?  The  plain  import  is,  and  so  understood  by 
all  at  the  time,  of  their  issue,  that  it  may  be  done  at  any 
titae  before  the  day  fixed  on  the  face  of  the  note  for  its 
payment.  With  what  semblance  of  good  faith  then,  does 
the  government  before  that  time,  compel  the  holder,  to  re- 
ceive a, four  per  cent  bond,  or  lose  the  whole  debt?  and 
wkat  better  is  this  than  repudiation  ?  When  was  it  ever 
before  attempted  b}?-  any  government,  to  compel  the  fund- 
tug  of  almost  the  entire  paper  currency  of  a  country, 
amounting  to  seven  or  eight  hundred  millions  of  dollars  in 
forty  days  ?„  This  is  certainly  a  new  chapter  in  financiering. 

The  country  expected  the  imposition  of  a  heavy  tax,  and 
all  patriotic  citizens  were  prepared  to  pay  it  cheerfully  at 
any  reasonable  sacrifice ;  but  repudiation  and  bad  faith 
were  not  expected,  and  the  authors  of  it  cannot  beheld 
guiltless. 

The  expiring  Congress  took  the  precaution  to  discuss  this 
'measure  in  secret  session  ;  so  that  the  individual  act  of  the 
representative  could  not  reach  his  constituents,  and  none 
could  be  annoyed  during  its  consideration  by  the  murmurs 
«f  public  disapprobation  being  echoed  back  into  the  Legis- 
lative Hall.  And  to  make  assurance  doubly  sure,  they 
tlxed  the  day  for  the  assembling  of  their  successors,  at  a 
time  too  late,  to  remedy  the  evil,  or  afford  adequate  re- 
dress for  the  wrong. 

Tkese  secret  sessions  of  Congress  are  becoming  a  blighting 
corse'tp  the  country.  They  are  used  as  a  convenient  mode 
#f  covering  up  from  the  people,  such  acts  or  expressions  of 


their  representatives  as  will  not  bear  investigation  in  the 
the  light  of  day.  Almost  every  act^  of  usurpation  of  pow- 
er, or  of  bad  faith,  has  been  conceived,  brought  forth  and 
nurtured,  in  secret  session.  If  I  mistake  not  the  British 
Parliament  never  discussed  a  single  measure  in  secret  session 
during  the  whole  period  of  the  Crimean  War.  But  if  it  ts 
necessary  to  discuss  a  few  important  military  measures, 
such  as  may  relate  to  the  movement  of  armies,  &c,  in  se- 
cret session,  it  does  not  follow  that  discussions  of  questions 
pertaining  to  the  currency,  the  suspension*  of  the  writ  of 
Habeas  Corptis,  and  the  like,  should  all  be  conducted  in  se- 
cret session.  The  people  should  require  all  such  measures 
to  be  discussed  with  open  doors,  and  the  press  should  have 
the  liberty  of  reporting  and  freely  criticising  the  acts  of 
our  public  servants.  In  this  way  the  reflection  Of  the 
popular  will  back  upon  the  reprentative,  would  generally 
cause  the  defeat  ofeuch  unsound  measures,  as  those  which 
are  now  fastened  upon  the  country  in  defiance  of  the  will 
of  the  people. 

But  dismissing  the  past  and  looking  to  the  future,  the  in- 
quiry presented  for  our  consideration  is,  how  shall  the  State 
authorities  act  in  the  management  of  the  finances  of  the 
State?  As  the  Confederate  States  Treasury  notes  consti- 
tute the  currency  of  the  country,  the  State  has  been  obliged 
to  receive  and  pay  them  out;  and  she  must  continue  to  do 
so,  as  long  as  they  remain  the  only  circulating  medium. 
The  present  Legislature  has  very  wisely  adopted  the  poli- 
cy, in  the  present  depreciated  condition  of  the  currency,  of 
collecting  by  taxation  a  sufficient  sum  in  currency,  to  pay 
the  current  appropriations  of  the  State  Government  ;  in- 
stead of  adding  them  to  the  debt  of  the  State  to  be  paid  in 
future  upon  the  gold  basis.  If  the  State  ^issues  her  own  . 
bonds  and  puis  them  upon  the  market,  or  if  she  issues  her 
own  Treasury  notes  redeemable  at  a  future  day  in  her 
bonds,  she  adds  the  amount  so  issued  to  her  permanent  in- 
debtedness ;  and  defeats,  the  policy  (.('paying  as  she  goes  ;* 
as  her  own  bonds  or  notes,  would  then  be  out,  and  could 
not  be  redeemed  with  the  Confederate  notes  when  received 
into  her  ^Treasury 

If  the  Stale  receives  inpayment  of  taxes  the  present 
Confedt  rate  Treasury  notes,  they  will  be  reduced  in  amount 
one  third  by  act  of  Congress  after  1st  April  next,  and  the 
State  receiving  them  at  par  pays  a  Confederate  Tax  of 
33$  per  cent"  upon  all  monies  that  pass  through  her  Treasu- 
ry.    This  of  course  can  not  be  submitted  to. 

The  repudiation  policy  of  Congress,  seems  therefore  to 
have  left  us  but  one  alternative;  and  that  is  to  receive  and 
pay  out  only  such  issues  of  Confederate  notes,  as  under  the 
acts  of  Congress  pass  at  par,  without  the  deduction  of 
33^  'or  any  other  per  cent.     But  as  we  are  obliged  to  have 


10 

funds  before  the. time  when  the  new  issues  of  Confederate 
notes  can  go  into  circulation,  the  question  presented  is 
how  shall  we, supply  the  Treasury  in  the  mean  time.  In 
my  judgment  the  proper  plan  will  be  to  issue  State  Treasu- 
ry-notes, payable  on  the  25th  clay  of  December  next  at  the 
Treasury,  and  in  each  of  the  more  important  cities  of  this 
State  in  Confederate  Treasury  notes,  of  such  issue  as  may 
be  made  after  1st  April  next,  to  be  used  as  circulating  me- 
dium. This  enables  the  State  to  anticipate  the  new  issues, 
and  use  them  in  advance  of  their  circulation  by  Confede- 
rate authority.  The  new  Georgia  Treasury  notes  of  this 
issue,  would  be  just  as  good,  as  the  new  issue  of  Confede- 
rate notes  ;  because  payable  in  them,  and  would  be  as  cur- 
rent in  payment  of  debts.  The  act  should  provide  that  all 
taxes  hereafter  due  the  State  for  this  year,  shall  be  payable 
in  the  Confederate  Treasury  notes  of  the  new  issue,  and 
that  they  shall  be  deposited  in  the  Treasury,  when  collec- 
ted, to  redeem  the  State  notes  payable  in  them.  The  act 
should  also  provide  that  the  State  notes  shall  be  returned 
and  the  Confederate  notes  received  in  place  of  them  with- 
in three  months  after  the}7  are  due,  or  that  the  State  will 
no  longer  be  liable  for  their  payment.  This  would  pre- 
vent holders  from  laying  them  away,  and  refusing  to  bring 
them  in  for  payment  when  due,  according  to  the  terms  of 
the  contract.  As  the  State  tax  is  not  due  till  next  fall, 
there  will  be  an  abundant  supply  of  the  new  Confederate 
notes  in  circulation  by  that  time,  to  obviate  all  difficulty  in 
obtaining  them  by  our  people  to  pay  the  tax. 

I  recommend  the  passage  of  a  joint  resolution,  authoriz- 
ing the  Governor  to  have  funded  in  the  six  per  cent  bonds, 
provided  for  by  the  act  of  Congress,  all  Confederate  notes 
which  may  remain  in  the  Treasury  ;  or  may  be  in  the 
hands  of  any  of'the  financial  agents  of  the  State  ;  after  the 
first  day  of  April  next ',  and  to  sell  and  dispose  of  such 
bonds  at  their  market  value  in  currency,  which  can  be 
made  available  in  payments  to  be.  made  by  the  Treasury  ; 
and  to  credit  the  Treasurer  with  any  losses  that  may  ac- 
crue by  reason  of  the  failure  of  the  bonds  to  bring  par  in 
the  market. 

orphans'  estates. 
On  account  of  the  present  depreciated  value  of  the  Con- 
federate securities  I  recommend  the  repeal  of  the  law  which 
authorizes  Executors,  Administrators  and  Trustees  to  in- 
vest the  funds  of  those  whom  they  represent  in  these  secu- 
rities. As  the  law  stands  it  enables  unscrupulous  fiduciary 
agents,  to  perpetrate  frauds  upon  innocent  orphans,  and 
other  helpless  persons  represented  by  them  ;  and  in  effect 
compels  orphans  and  those  represented  by  trustees,  to  in- 
vest their  whole  estates,  in  government  bonds,  which  no 
other  class  is  required  to  do. 


11 

FURLOUGHS   REFUSED. 

On  the  27th  of  February,  when  I  issued  my  Proclama- 
tion, calling  you  into  extra  session,  I  telegraphed  the  Sec- 
retary of  War  ;  and  asked  that  furloughs  be  granted,  to  mem- 
bers in  military  service,  to  attend  the  session  ;  and  received 
a  reply  stating  that  it  had  "  been  concluded  not  to  grant  fur- 
loughs to  attend  the  session",  that,  "  officers  so  situated  are 
entitled  to  resign  and  may  so  elect". 

I  regret  this  determination  of  the  Confederate  govern- 
ment ;  as  it  places  our  gallant  officers,  who  have  been  elec- 
ted by  the  people  to  represent  them,  and  to  whom,  as  well 
as  their  predecessors  similarly  situated,  furloughs  were  nev- 
er before  denied,  in  a  position  where  it  costs  them  their 
commissions  to  attempt  to  discharge  their  duties,  as  Repre- 
sentatives of  the  people. 

THE  NEW  MILITIA  OBGANIZATION  AND  CONSCRIPTION. 

Since  your  adjournment  in  December,  the  Adjutant  and 
Inspector  General,  under  my  direction,  has  done  all  in  his 
power  to  press  forward  the  organization  of  the  Militia  of 
the  State,  in  conformity  to  the  act  passed  for  that  purpose  ; 
and  I  have  the  pleasure  to  state,  that  the  enrollments  are 
generally  made  ;  except  in  a  few  localities,  where  proximi- 
ty to  the  enemy  lias  prevented  it ;  and  the  organizations  will 
soon  be  completed. 

At  this  stage  in  our  proceedings,  we  are  met  with  formi- 
dable obstacles  ;  thrown  in  our  way,  by  the  late  act'of  Con- 
gress ;  which  subjects  those  between  17  and  50,  to  enroll- 
ment as  Conscripts,  (or  Confederate  service.  This  act  of 
Congress  proposes  to  take  from  the  State,  as  was  done  on  a 
former  occasion,  1mm-  entire  military,  force,  who  belong  to  the 
active,  list,  and  to  leave  her  without  a  force  in  the  different 
counties  sufficient  to  execute  her  laws  or  suppress  servile 
insurrection. 

Our  Supreme  Court  has  ruled,  that  the  Confederate  gov- 
ernment, has  the  power  to  raise  armies  by  Conscription  ; 
but  it  has  not  decided,  that  it  also  has  the  power,  to  enroll 
the  whole  population  of  the  State,  who  remain  at  home,  so 
as  to  place  the  whole  people,  under  the  military  control  of 
the  Confederate  government ;  and  thereby,  take  from  the 
States  all  command  over  their  own  citizens,  to  execute  their 
own  laws:  ;md  place  the  internal  police  regulations  of  the 
Slates,  iu  the  hands  of  the  President.  It  is  one  thing  to 
"  raise  jinnies",  and  another,  and  quite  a  different  thing,  to 
put  the  whole  population  at  home  under  military  law,  and 
compel  every  man  to  obtain  a  military  detail,  upon  such 
tfcnns  as  the  central  government  may  dictate,  and  to  carry  a 
military  pass  in  his  pocket,  while  he  cultivates  his  farm,  or 
attends  to  his  other  necessary  avocations  at  home. 

Neither  a  planter  nor  an  overseer  engaged  upon  the  farm, 


12 

nor  a  blacksmith  making  agricultural  implements,  nor  a  mil- 
ler grinding  for  the  people  at  home,  belongs  to,  or  consti- 
tutes any  part  of  the  armies  of  the  Confederacy  ;  and  there  is 
not  the  shadow  of  Constitutional  power,  vested  in  the  Con- 
federate government,  for  couscribfng,  and  putting  these 
classes,  and  others  engtiged  in  home  pursuits,  under  milita- 
ry rule,  while  they  remain  at  home,  to  discharge  these  du- 
ties. If  Conscription  were  Constitutional,  as  a  means  of 
raising  armies  by  the  Confederate  government,  it  could  not 
be  Constitutional  to  conscribe  those  not  actually  needed,  and 
to  be  employed  in  the  army  ;  and  the  Constitutional  power  to 
"raise  armies", could  never  carry  with  it,the  power  in  Congress 
to  conscribe  the  whole  people;  who  are  not  needed  for  the  ar- 
mies ;  but  are  left  at  home,  because  more  useful  there  ;  and 
place  them  wader  military  government,  and  compel  them  to 
get  military  details  to  plough  in  their  fields,  shoe  their  farm 
horses,  or  go  to  mill. 

Conscription  carried  to  this  extent,  is  the  essence  of  mili- 
tary despotism  ;  placing  all  civil  rights,  in  a  state  of  subor- 
dination to  military  power  ;  and  putting  the  personal  free- 
dom of  each  individual  in  civil  life,  at  the  will  of  the  chief 
of  the  military  power.  But  it  may  be  said  that  Conscrip- 
tion may  act  upon  one  class  as  legally  as  another  :  and  that 
all  classes  are  equally  subject  to  it.  This  is  undoubtedly 
true.  It  the  government  has  a  right  to  conscribe  nt  all,  it 
has  a  right  to  conscribe  persons  of  all  classes,  till  it  has  rais- 
ed enough  to  supply  its  armies.  But  it  has  no  right  to  go 
farther  and  conscribe  all,  who  are  by  its  own  consent  to  re- 
main at  home,  to  make  supplies.  If  it  considers  supplies  ne- 
cessary, somebody  must  make  them  ;  and  those  who  do  it, 
being  no  part  of  the  army,  should  be  exempt  from  Conscrip- 
tion, and  the  annoyance  of  military  dictation,  while  engaged 
in  civil,  and  not  military  pursuits. 

If  all  between  17  and  50  arc  to  be  enrolled  and  placed  in 
constant  military  service,  we  must  conquer  the  enemy  while 
we  are  consuming  our  present  crop  of  provisions,  or  we  are 
ruined  ;  as  it  will  be  impossible  for  the  old  men  over  50,  and 
the  boys  under  17,  to  make  supplies  enough,  to  fee*J  our  ar- 
mies and  people,  another  year.  I  think  every  practical  man 
in  the  Confederacy  who  knows  anything  about  our  agricul- 
tural interests,  and  resources,  will  readily  admit  this. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  the  intention  to  put  those 
between  17  and  IS,  and  between  45  and  50,  into  service,  as 
soldiers,  but  to  leave  them  at  home  to  produce  supplies,  and 
occasionally  to  do  police  and  other  duties,  within  the  State, 
which  properly  belong  to  the  Militia  of  a  State  ;  or  in  other 
words,  if  it  is  the  intention  simply  to  take  the  control  of 
them  from  the  State,  so  as  to  deprive  her  of  all  power,  and 
leave'her  without  sufficient  force  to  execute  her  own  laws, 
or  suppress  servile,  insurrection;  and  place  the  whole  Militia 


13 

of  the  State,  not  needed  for  constant  service  in  the  Confed- 
erate armies,  under  the  control  of  the  President,  while  en- 
gaged in  their  civil  pursuits,  the  act  is  unconstitutional  and 
oppressive,  and  ought  not  to  be  executed. 

If  the  act  is  executed  in  this  State,  it  deprives  her  of  her 
whole  active  Militia,  as  Congress  has  so  shaped  it  as  to  in- 
clude the  identical  persons  embraced  in  the  act  passed  at 
your  late  session,  and  to  transfer  the  control  of  them  all  from 
the  State  to  the  Confederate  government. 

The  State  has  already  enrolled  these  persons  under  the 
solemn  act  of  her  Legislature,  for  her  own  defense,  and  it  is 
a  question  for  you  to  determine,  whether  the  necessities  of 
the  State  ;  her  sovereignty  and  dignity,  and  justice  to  those 
who  are  to  be  aflected  by  the  act,  do  not  forbid,  that  she 
should  permit  her  organization  to  be  broken  up,  and  her 
means  of  self-preservation  to  be  taken  out  of  her  hands.  If 
this  is  done,  what  will  lie  our  condition  ?  I  prefer  to  answer 
by  adopting  the  language  of  the  present  able  and  patriotic 
Governor  of  Virginia  :  "  A  sovereign  State  without  a  sol- 
dier, find  without  the  dignity  of  strength — stripped  of  all 
her  men,  and  with  only  the  form  and  pageantry  of  power — 
would  indeed,  be  nothing  more  than  a  wretched  dependen- 
cy, to  which  I  should  grieve  to  see  our  proud  old  Common- 
wealth reduced". 

I  may  be  reminded  that  the  enemy  hi  s  three  times  as 
many  white  men,  able  to  bear  arms,  as  we  have,  and  that  it  is 
necessary  to  take  all  between  the  ages  above  mentioned,  or 
wc  cannot  keep  as  many  men  in  the  held  as  he  does. 

If  the  result  depended  upon  our  ability  to  do  this,  we 
must  necessarily  fail.  But,  fortunately  for  us,  this  is  not 
the  case.  While  they  have  the  advantage  in  numbers,  we 
have  other  advantages,  which,  if  properly  improved,  they 
can  never  overcome.  We  are  the  invaded  party,  in  the 
right,  struggling  for  all  we  have  ;  and  for  all  that  we  expect 
our  posterity  to  inherit.  This  gives  us  great  moral  advan- 
tage, over  a  more  powerful  enemy  ;  who,  as  the  invaders, 
are  in  the  wrong  ;  and  are  fighting  for  conquest  and  power. 
We  have  the  inner  and  shorter  lines  of  defense;  while  they 
have  the  longer  and  much  more  difficult  ones.  For  in- 
stance, if  we  desire  to  reinforce  Dal  ton,  from  Wilmington, 
Charleston,  Savannah,  and  Mobile,  or  to  reinforce  either  of 
those  points,  from  Dalton,  we  can  do  so  by  throwing  troops 
rapidly  over  a  short  line  from  out'  point  to  the  otl  er.  If  the 
enemy  wishes  to  reinforce  Charleston  or  Chattanooga,  from 
Washington  or  New  Orleans,  he  must  throw  his  troops  a 
long  distance  around,  almost  upon  the  circumference  of  a 
.circle;  while  ws  meet  them  with  our  reinforcements,  by 
throwing  them  across  the  diameter  of  a  semi-circle.  This 
difference  in  our  favor,  is  as  great  as  four  to  one,  and  enables 


♦       14 

us,  if  our  troops  are  properly  handled,  to  repel  their  assaults, 
with  little  more  than  one-fourth  their  number. 

In  consideration  of  these,  and  numerous  other  advantages, 
which  an  invaded  people,  united  and  determined  to  be  free, 
always  has  ;  it  is  not  wise  policy  for  us  to  undertake  to  keep 
in  the  field  as  large  a  number  as  the  enemy  has. 

It  is  the  duty  of  those  in  authority,  in  a  country  engaged 
in  a  war,  which  calls  for  all  the  resources  at  command,  to 
consider  well,  what  proportion  of  the  whole  population,  can 
safely  be  kept  under  arms.  In  our  present  condition,  sur- 
rounded by  the  enemy,  and  our  ports  blockaded,  so  that  we 
can  place  but  little  dependence,  upon0  foreign  supplies,  we 
are  obliged  to  keep  a  sufficient  number  of  men  in  the  agricul- 
tural fields,  to  make  supplies  for  our  troops  under  arms,  and 
their  families  at  home,  or  we  must  ultimately  fail. 

The  policy  which  would  compel  all  our  men  to  go  to  the 
Military  field,  and  leave  our  farms  uncultivated,  and  our 
workshops  vacant,  would  be  the  most  fatal  and  unwise  that 
could  be  adopted.  In  that  case,  the  enemy  need  only  avoid 
battle,  and  continue  the  war,  till  we  consume  the  supplies 
now  on  hand,  and  we  would  be  completely  in  their  power. 

There  is  a  certain  proportion  of  a  people  in  our  condi- 
tion, who  can  remain  under  arms,  and  the  balance  of  the 
population  'at  home  can  support  them.  So  long  as  that 
proportion  has  not  been  reached,  more  may  safely  be  taken  ; 
but  when  it  is  reached,  every  man  taken  from  the  field  ot 
production,  and  placed  as  a  consumer  in  the  military  field, 
makes  us  that  much  weaker  ;  and  if  we  go  far  beyond  the 
proportion,  failure  and  ruin  are  inevitable  ;  as  the  army  must 
soon  disband,  when  it  can  no  longer  be  supplied  with  the 
necessaries  of  life.  There  is  reason  to  fear,  that  those  in  au- 
thority have  not  made  safe  calculations  upon  this  point,  and 
that  they  do  not  fully  appreciate  the  incalculable  impor- 
tance,''of  the  agricultural  interests,  in  this  struggle. 

We  are  able  to  keep  constantly  under  arms  two  hundred 
thousand  effective  men,  and  to  support  and  maintain  that 
force  by  our  own  resources  and  productions,  for  twenty 
years  to  come.  No  power  nor  Statecan  ever  be  conquered 
so  long  as  it  can  maintain  that  number  of  good  troops.  If 
the  enemy  should  bring  a  million  against  us,  let  us  remem- 
ber, that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  whipping  the  fight  with- 
out fighting  it,  and  avoiding  pitched  battles  and  unnecessa- 
ry collisions;  let  us  give  this  vast  force  time  to  melt  away 
under  the  heat  of  summer  and  the  snows  of  winter  ;  as  did 
Xerxes'  army  in  Greece  and  Napoleon's  in  Russia,  and  the 
enemy's  resources  and  strength  will  exhaust  when  so  prod- 
igally used,  much  more  rapidly  than  ours,  when  properly, 
economised.  In  properly  economising  our  strength  and 
husbanding  our  resources,  lie  our  best  hope  of  suceess. 
Instead  of  making  constant  new  drafts  upon  the  agricul- 


.15 

tural  and  mechanical  labor  of  the  country,  for  recruits  for 
the  army,  to  swell  our  numbers  beyond  our  present  muster 
rolls,  which  must  prove  our  ruin,  if  our  provisions  fail,  I 
respectfully  submit  that  it  would  be  wiser  to  put  the  troops 
into  the  army,  and  leave  men  enough  at  home  to  support 
them.  In  other  words,  compel  the  thousands  of  young  offi- 
cers in  gold  lace  and  brass  buttons,  who  are  constantly 
seen  crowding  our  railroads  and  hotels,  many  of  whom  can 
seldom  be  found  at  their-posts  ;  and  the  thousands  of  strag- 
gling soldiers  who  are  absent  without  leave,  or,  by  the 
favoritism  of  officers,  whose  names  are  on  the  pay  rolls,  and 
who  are  not  producers  at  home,  to  remain  at  their  places  in 
the  army.  This  is  justice  alike  to  the  country,  to  the  tax 
payers,  to  the  gallant  officers  who  stand  firmly  at  the  post 
of  duty,  and  the  gallant  soldiers  who  seldom  or  never  get 
furloughs,  but  are  always  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight.  When 
they  are  enduring  and  suffering  so  much,  why  should  the 
favorites  of  power  and  those  of  their  comrades  who  seek  to 
avoid  duty  and  danger,  be  countenanced  or  tolerated  at 
home,  while  their  names  st;ihd  upon  the  muster  rolls? 

If  all  who  are  able  for  duty,  and  who  are  now  nominally 
in  service  drawing  pay  from  the  Government,  are  compell- 
ed to  do  their  duty  faithfully,  there  will  be  no  need  of  com- 
pelling men  over  45  to  leave  thejr  homes,  or  of  disbanding 
the  State  militia  to  place  more  men  under  the  President's 
control. 

CONFLICT  WITH  THE  CONFEDERATE  (iOVEKNMENT. 

Hut  it  may  be  said  that  an  attempt  to  maintain  the  rights 
of  the  State  will  produce  conflict  with  the  Confederate 
Government.  I  am  aware  that  there  are  those  who,  from 
motives  not  necessary  to  be  here  mentioned,  are  ever  ready 
to  raise  the  cry  of  conflict,  and  to  criticise  and  condemn  the 
action  of  Georgia,  in  every  case  where  her  constituted  au- 
thorities protest  against  the  encroachments  of  the  central 
power,  and  seek  to  m  aid  tain  her  dignity  and  sovereignty  as 
a  State^and  the  constitutional  rights  and  liberties  of  her 
people. 

Those  who  are  unfriendly  to  State  sovereignty  and  desii'e 
to  consolidate  all  power  in  the  hands  of  the  Confederate 
Government,  hoping  to  promote  their. undertaking  by  ope- 
rating upon  the  fears  of  the  timid,  after  each  new  aggres- 
sion upon  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  States,  fill  the 
newspaper  presses  with  the  cry  of  conflict,  and  warn  the 
people  to.  beware  of  those  who  seek  to  maintain  their  con- 
stitutional rights,  as  agitators  or  jxirtisans  who  may  embar- 
rass the  Confederate  Government  in  the  prosecution  of  the 
war. 

Let  not  the  people  be  deceived  by  this  false  clamor.  It 
is  the  same  cry  of  conflict  which  the  Lincoln  government 


16, 

raised  against  all  who  defended  the  rights  of  the  Southern 
States  against  its  tyranny.  It  is  the  cry  which  the  usur- 
pers of  power  have  ever  raised  against  those  who  rebuke 
their  encroachments  and  refuse  to  yield  to  their  aggres- 
sions. 

When  did  Georgia  embarrass  the  Confederate  Govern- 
ment in  any  matter  pertaining  to  the  vigorous  prosecution 
of  the  war  ?  When  did  she  fail  to  furnish  more  than  her 
full  quota  of  troops,  when  she  was  called  upon  as  a  State 
by  the  proper  Confederate  authority  ?  And  when  did  her 
gallant  sons  ever  quail  before  the  enemy,  or  fail  nobly  to 
illustrate  her  character  upon  the  battle  field  ? 

She  can  not  only  repel  the  attacks  of  her  enemies  on  the 
field  of  deadly  conflict,  but  she  can  as  proudly  repel  the 
assaults  of  those  who,  ready  to  bend  the  knee  to  power  for 
position  and  patronage,  set  themselves  up  to  criticise  her 
conduct,  and  she  can  confidently  challenge  them  to  point  to 
a  single  instance  in  which  she  has  failed  to  fill  a  requisition 
for  troops  made  upon  her  through  the  regular  constitution- 
al channel.  To  the  very  last  requisition  made  she  respon- 
ded with  over  double  the  number  required. 

She  stands  ready  at  all  times  to  do  her  whole  duty  to  the 
cause  and  to  the  Confederacy,  but  while  she  does  this,  she 
will  never  cease  to  require^that  her  constitutional  rights  be 
respected  and  the  liberties  of  her  people  "preserved. 
While  she  deprecates  all  conflict  with  the  Confederate  Gov- 
ernment, if  to  require  these  be  conflict,  the  conflict  will  never 
end  till  the  object  is  attained. 

•  ."For  freedom's  battle  once  begun, 

Beqneftth'd  by  bleeding  sire  to  son, 
Though  baffled  oft  is  ever  won," 

will  be  emblazoned  in  letters  of  living  light  upon  her  proud 
banners,  until  State  sovereignty  and  constitutional  liberty, 
as  well.as  Confederate  independence,  are  firmly  established. 

SUSPENSION  OF  THE  HABEAS  CORPUS. 

I  cannot  withhold  the  expression  of  the  deep  mortifica- 
tion I  feel  at  the  late  action  of  Congress  in  attempting  to 
suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus,  and  to 
confer  upon  the  President  powers  expressly  denied  to  him 
by  the  Constitution  of  the  Confederate  States.  Under  pre- 
text of  a  necessity  which  our  whole  people  know  does  not 
exist  in  this  case,  whatever  may  have  been  the  motives,  our 
Congress  with  the  assent  and  at  the  request  of  the  Execu- 
tive, has  struck  a  fell  blow  at  the  liberties  of  the  people  of 
these  States. 

The  Constitution  of  the  Confederate  States  declares  that, 
"The  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  shall  not  be  sus- 
pended,, unless  when  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion  the 
public  safety  may  require  it."     The  power  to  suspend  the 


33 
and  no  breach  of  it,  was  ever  laid  at  their  door;  or  truly 
charged  against  them.  In  exercising  their  undoubted  right 
to  withdraw  from  the  Union,  when  the  covenant  had  been 
broken  by  the  Northern  States,  they  sought  no  war — no 
strife. — They  simply  withdrew  from  further  connection 
with  self-confessed,  faithless  Confederates.  They  offered 
no  injury  to  them — threatened  none — proposed  none — in- 
tended none.  If  their  previous  union  with  the  Southern 
States,  had  been  advantageous  to  them,  and  our  withdrawal 
affected  their  interests  injuriously,  they  ought  to  have  been 
truer  to  their  obligations.  They  had  no  just  cause  to  com- 
plain of  us,  the  breach  of  the  Compact  was  by  themselves 
— flie  vital  cord  of  the  union,  was  severed  by  their  own 
.hands. 

After  the  withdrawal  of  the  Confederate  States  from  the- 
Union,  if  those  whose  gross  dereliction  of  duty  had  caused 
it,  had  reconsidered  their  own  acts;  and  offered  new  assu- 
rances for  better  faith  in  future;  the  question  would  have 
beeu  fairly  and  justly  put  to  the  seceded  States,  in  their 
sovereign  capacity  to  determine;  whether  in  view  of  their 
past  and  future  interest  and  safety, "they  should  renew  the 
union  with  them  or  not,  and  upon  what  terms,  and  guar- 
antees; and  if  they  had  found  it  to  be  their  interest  to  do 
so,  upon  any  terms  that  might  have  beer.  agreed  upon;  on 
the  principle  assumed  at  the  beginning,  thai  it  was  for  the 
best  interest  of  all  the  States,  to  be  bound,  by  some  Com- 
pact of  union,  with  a  Central  Government  of  limited  pow- 
ers; each  State  faithfully  performing  its  obligations;  ikey 
would  doubtless  have  consented  to  it.  But  if  they  had 
found  it  to  be  their  interest  not  to  do  it,  they  would  not,, 
and  ought  not  to  have  done  it.  For  the  first  law  of  nature 
as  applicable  to  States  and  communities,  as  to  individuals,, 
is  self-protection  and  self-preservation. 

Possibly  a  new  government  might  have  been  formed  a 7 
that  time,  upon  the  basis  of  the  Germanic  Confederation; 
with  a  guaranty  of  the  complete  sovereignty  of  all  the  sep- 
arate States;  and  with  a  central  agent  or  government,  of 
more  limited  powers  than  the  old  one;  which  would  have 
been  as  useful  for  defence  against  foreign  aggression;  and 
much  less  dangerous  to  the  Sovereignty  and  the  existence 
of  the  States,  than  the  eld  one,  when  in  the  hands  of  abolition 
leaders,  had  proved  itself  to  be. 

The  length  of  time  for  which  the-Germanic  Confederation 
has  existed,  has  proved,  that  its  strength  lies  in  what  might 
have   been  considered  its  weakness — the  separate   Sc> 
eignty   of  the    individual  members;  and  the  very   line 
powers  of  the  Central  Government. 

In  taking  the  Step  which  they  were  forced  to  do,  the 
Southern  States  were  careful  not  to  provoke  a  conflict  <>f 
arms;  or  any  serious  misunderstanding,  with  the  States 
that  adhered  to  the  government  at  Washington;  as  long  as 
it  was  possible  to  avoid  it.  Commissioners  were  sent  to 
3 


34 
\\rashingtoTi  to  settle  and  adjust  all  matters  relating  to  their 
past  connection;*01"  joint  interests,  and  obligations;  justly, 
honorably,  and  peaceably.  Our  Commissioners  were  not 
received — they  wei  e  denied  the  privilege  of  an  audience— 
they  were  not  heard.  But  they  were  indirectly  trifled  with, 
lied  to,  and  misled,  by  duplicity  as  infamous  as  that  practic- 
ed by  Philip  of  Spam,  towards  the  peace  Commissioners 
sent  by  Elizabeth  of  England.  They  were  detained,  and 
deceived,  with  private  assurances  of  a  prospect  of  a  peace- 
ful settlement;  while  the  roo.^t  extensive  preparations  were 
■being  made  for  war  and  subjugation.  When  they  discov- 
ered this  they  withdrew,  and  the  government  at  Washing 
ton  continued  its  vigorous  preparations  to  reinforce  its 
garrisons,  and  hold  the  possession  of  our  Forts;  and  to  send 
armies  to  invade  our  territory. 

Having  completed  his  preparations  for  war,  and  refused 
to  hear  any  propositions  for  a  peaceful  adjustment  of  our 
difficulties;  President  Lincoln  issued  his  proclamation  de- 
claring Georgia,  and  the  other^seceded  States  to  be  in  rebel- 
lion; and  sent  forth  his  armies  of  invasion. 

In  rebellion  against  whom  or  what?  As  sovereign  States 
have  no  common  arbiter,  to  whose  decision  they  can  appeal; 
when  they  are  unable  to  settle  their  differences  amicably, 
they  often  resort  to  the  sword  as  the  arbiter;  and  as  sover- 
eignty is  always  in  dignity  the  equal  ofjsovereignty,  and  a 
sovereign  can  know  no  superior  to  which  allegiance  is  due, 
one  sovereign  may  be  at  war  with  another;  but  one  can 
never  be  in  rebellion  against  another. 

To  say  that  the  sovereign  State  of  Georgia,  is  in  rebel- 
lion against  the  sovereign  State  of  Rhode  Island,  is  as  much 
an  absurdity,  as  it, would  be  to  say  that  the  sovereign  State 
of  Russia  was  in  rebellion  against  the  sovereigfi  State  of 
Great  Britain  in  their  late  war.  They  were  at  war,  with 
each  other;  but  neither  was  in  rebellion  against  the  other; 
nor  indeed  could  be;  for  neither  owed  an}''  allegiance  to  the 
other. 

Nor  could  one  of  the  Sovereign  States  be  in  rebellion 
■against  the  government  of  the  United  States.  That  gov- 
ernment was  the  creature  of  the  States,  by  which  it  was 
created;  and  they  had  the  same  power  to  destroy  it  at' 
pleasure,  which  they  had  to  make  it.  It  was  their  common 
agent  with  limited  powers,  and  the  States  by  which  the 
agency  wTas  created,  had  the  undoubted  right  when  it  abused 
these  powers  to  withdraw  them.  Suppose  by  mutual  con- 
sent all  the  States  in  the  Union,  had  met  in  convention  ; 
each  in  its  separate  sovereign  capacity,  and  had  withdrawn 
all  the  delegated  powers  from  the  federal  government,  and 
all  the  States  had  refused  to  send  Senators  or  Representa- 
tives to  Congress,  or  to  elect  a  President ;  will  any  sane 
man  question  their  right,  or  deny  that  such  action  of  the 
States  would  have  destroyed  the  federal  government  ?  If 
so  the  federal  government  was  the  creature  of  the  States 


35 
and  could  exist  only  at  their  pleasure.  It  lived  and  breath- 
ed only  by  their  consent.  If  all  the  parties  to  the  compact, 
had  the  right  by  mutual  consent,  to  resume  the  powers 
delegated  by  them  to  the  common  agent ;  why  had  not  part 
of  them  the  right  to  do  so,  when  the  others  violated  the 
compact — refused  to  be  bound  longer  by  its  obligations  ; 
and  thereby  released  their  copartners  ?  The  very  fact  that 
the  States — by  which  it  was  formed,  could  at  any  time  by 
mutual  consent,  disband,  and  destroy  the  federal  govern- 
ment, shows  that  it  had  no  original  inherent  sovereignty  or 
jurisdiction.  As  the  creature  of  the  States  it  had  only  such 
powers  and  jurisdictions  as  they  gave  it ;  and  it  held  what 
it  had  at  their  pleasure.  If  therefore  a  State  withdrew 
from  the  Confederacy  without  just  cause,  it  was  a  question 
for  the  other  sovereign  States  to  consider,  what  should  be 
their  future  relations  towards  it ;  but  it  was  a  question  of 
which  the  federal  government  had  not  the  shadow  of  jurisdic- 
tion. So  long  as  Georgia  remained  in  the  Union,  if  her 
citizens  had  refuseH  to  obey  such  laws  of  Congress,  a3  it 
had  constitutional  jurisdiction  to  pass,  they  might  have 
been  in  rebellion  against  tiie  federal  government;  because 
they  resisted  the  authority  over  them,  which  Georgia  had 
delegated  to  that  government,  and  which  with  her  consent 
it  still  possessed.  But  if  Georgia  for  just  cause,  of  which 
she  was  the  judge,  chose  to  withdraw  from  the  Union,  and 
resume  the  attributes  of  sovereignty,  which  she  had  dele- 
gated to  the. United  States  Government,  her  citizens  could 
no  longer  be  subject  to  the  laws  of  the  Union,  and  no  lon- 

::ilty  as  rebels  if  they  did  not  obey  them. 
It  could  be  as  justly  said,  that    the   principal,    who   has 
d  (legated  certain  limited  powers  to  his  agent,  in  the  trans- 
action ol  hi- business,  which  he  has  afterwards  withdrawn 
on  account  of  their  abuse  by  the  agent,is  in  rebellion  against 

gent  :  or  thai  the  master  is  in  rebellion  against  his  ser- 
vant ;  or  lie  landlord  against  his  tenant  ;  because  lie  has 
withdrawn  certain  privileges  fcr  a  time  allowed  them  ;  as 
that  Georgia  is  in  rebellion  against  her  former  agent  the 
government  of  the  United  States. 

These  I  understand  to  be  the  great  fundamental  doctrines 
of  our  republican  form  of  government  ;  bo  ably  expounded 
in  the  Virginia  and  Kentucky  resolutions  of  L798  and  L799  j 
which  have  ever  since  been  a  text  hook  of  the  inn  republi- 
can party  of  the  United  States.  Departure  from  these 
principles,  has  destroyed  the  federal  government  j  and  been 
the  prolific  cause  of  all  our  woes.  Out  of  this  departure 
has  spinier  the  doctrine  of  loyalty  and  disloyalty  of  the 
States  in  i  he  federal  government;  from  which  comes  osten- 
sibly this  war  against  us  :  which  18  itself  at  war  with  the 
til's t  principles  of  American  constitutional  liberty.  It  in- 
volves the  interests,  the  future  safety,  and  welfare,  ot 
States  now  deemed  loyal,  as  well  as  those  pronounced  dis- 
loyal.    It  is  the  doctrine  of  absolutism  revived  in- its  worst 


36 
form.  It  strikes  down  the  essential  principles  of  self-gov- 
ernment, ever  held  so  sacred  in  our  past  history  ;  and  to 
which  all  the  States  were  indebted  for  their  unparalleled 
career,  in  growth,  prosperity,  and  greatness,  so  long  as 
those  principles  were  adhered  to  and  maintained  inviolate. 
If  carried  out  and  established,  its  end  can  be  nothing 
but  centralism,  and  despotism.  It  and  its  fatal  corollary — 
the  policy  of  forcing  sovereign  States  to  the  discharge  of 
their  assumed  constitutional  obligations,  were  foreshadowed 
by  President  Lincoln  in  his  inaugural  address. 

Now  at  the  time  of  tiie  delivery  of  that  inaugural  address 
it  was  well  known  to  him,  that  the  faithless  States  above 
alluded  to  ;  and  to  whose  votes  in  the  electoral  college  he 
was  indebted  for  his  election,  had  for  years  been  in  open 
avowed  and  determined  violation,  of  their  constitutional 
obligations.  This  he  well  knew,  and  he  also  knew,  that 
the  seceded  States  had  withdrawn  from  the  Union,  because 
of  this  breach  of  faith  on  the  part  of  the  abolition  States  ; 
and  other  anticipated  violations,  more  dangerous,  threaten- 
ed from  the  same  quarter.  Yet  without  a  word  of  rebuke, 
censure,  or  remonstrance,  with  them,  for  their  most  flagrant 
disloyalty  to  the  constitution,  and  their  disregard  of  their 
most  sacred  Obligations  under  it ;  he  then  threatened  and 
now  wasres  war  against  us,  on  the  ground  of  our  disloyalty  ; 
in  seeking  new  safe-guards  for  our  security,  when  the  old 
ones  failed.  '  And  the  people  of  those  very  States,  whose 
disloyal  hands  had  severed  the  ties  of  the  Union — breaking- 
one  of  the  essential  parts  of  .the  compact,  have  been,  and 
are,  his  most  furious  myrmidons,  in  this  most  wicked  and 
unjust  crusade  against  us,  with  the  view  to  compel  the  peo- 
ple of  these  so  outraged  States,  to  return  to  the  discharge 
of  their  constitutional  obligations!  It  may  be  gravely 
doubted,  if  the  history  of  the  world  can  furnish  an  instance 
of  .grosser  perfidy  or  more  shameful  wrong. 

But  while  the  war  is- thus  waged,  professedly  under  the 
paradoxical  pretext  of  restoring  the  Union  that  was  a 
creature  of  consent,  by  force;  and  of  upholding  the  Con- 
stitution by  coercing  sovereigu  States  ;  yet  its  real  objects,, 
as  appears  more  obviously  every  day,  are  by  no  means  so 
paradoxical.  The  Union  under  the  Constitution  as  it  was; 
each  and  every  State  being  bound  faithfully  to  perform  and 
discharge  its  duties,  and  obligations,  and  the  central  gov- 
ernment confining  itself  within  the  sphere  of  its  limited 
powers  ;  is  what  the  authors,  projectors,  and  controllers,  of 
this  war  never  wanted  ;  and  never  intended  ;  and  do  not 
now  intend  to  maintain. 

Whatever  differences  of  opinion  may  have  existed  at  the 
commencement,  among  our  own  people,  as  to  the  policy  of 
secession,  or  the  objects  of  the  federal  government;  all- 
doubt  has  been  dispelled  by  the  Abolition  Proclamation  of 
President  Lincoln  ;  and  his  subsequent  action.  Maddened 
by  abolition  fanaticism,  and  deadly  hate  for  the  white  race 


-37 
of  the  South,  he  wages  war  not  for  the  restoration  of  the 
Union — not  for  the  support  of  the  Constitution — but  for  the 
abolition  of  slavery,  and  the  subjugation,  and  as  he  doubt- 
less desires  ultimate  extermination,  of  the  anglo-Norman 
race  in  the  Southern  States.  Dearly  beloved  by  him  as  are 
the  African  race,  his  acts  are  prompted  less  by  love  of 
them,  than  by  Puritanic  hate  for  the  Cavaliers,  the  Hugue- 
nots, and  Scotch  Irish,  whose  blood  courses  freely  through 
the  veins  of  the  white  population  of  the  South.  But  fed- 
eral bayonets  can  never  reverse  the  laws  of  God,  which 
must  be  done,  'before  the  negro  can  be  made  the  equal  of 
the  white  man  of  the  South.  The  freedom  sought  for  them, 
by  the  abolition  party  if  achieved,  would  result  in  their  re- 
turn to  barbarism  ;  and  their  ultimate  extermination  from 
the  soil,  where  most  of  them  were  born  ;  and  were  com- 
fortable and  contented,  under  the  guardian  care  of  the 
white  race,  before  this  wicked  crusade  was  commenced. 

What  have  been  the  abolition  achievements  of  the  ad- 
ministration ?  The  m6st  that  has  been  claimed  by  them, 
is  that  they  have  taken  from  their  owners,  and  set  free, 
100,000  negroes.  What  has  this  cost  the  white  race  of  the 
North  and  South?  More  than  half  a  million  of  white 
men  slain  or  wrecked  in  health  beyond  the  hope  of  recov- 
ery, and  an  expenditure  of  not  perhaps  less  than  four  thousand 
millions  of  dollars.  What  will  it  cost  at  this  rate,  to  lib- 
erate nearly  4,000,000  more  of  slaves  V  Northern  accounts, 
of  the  sickness,  suffering  and  death,  which  have  under  nor- 
thern treatment,  carried  off  so  large  a  proportion  of  those 
set  free, ought  to  convince  the  most  fanatical,  of  the  cruel  in- 
jury they  are  inflicting  upon  the  poor  helpless  African. 

The  real  objects  of  the  war  aimed  at  from  the  beginning, 
were  ami  are,  not  so  much  the  deliverance  of  the  African 
irom  bondage,  as  the  repudiation  of  the  great  American 
doctrine  of  self-government  ;  the  subjugation  of  the  peo- 
ple of  these  States;  and  the  confiscation  ot  their  property. 
To  carry  out  (heir  tell  purpose  by  misleading  some  simple 
minded  folks,  within  their  own  limits,  as  well  as  ours  per- 
haps, they  passed  in  the  liens,'  of  lu-presentatives  of  the 
Federal  Congress  a  short  time  since  the  famous  resolution: 

"That  as  our  country  and  the  very  Existence  of  the  best 
government  ever  instituted  by  man  is  imperiled,  by  the 
most  causeless  and  wicked  rebellion,  that  the  only  hope  of 
saving  tbe  country  and  preserving  this  governmenl  is  by  the 
power  of  the  BWord,  we  are  for  the  most  vigorous  prosecu- 
tion of  the  war  ;  until  the  constitution  and  fans,  shall  be  en- 
forced and  obeyed,  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States  ;  and  to 
thai  end  we  oppose  any  armistice,  or  intervention,  or  media- 
tion, or  proposition  for  peace,  from  any  quarter  ;  so  long  as 
there  shall  be  found  a  rebel  in  arms  against  the  government; 
and  we  ignore  all  part\  names  lines  and  issues,  and  recognize 
but  two  parties  to  this  war — patriots,  and  traitors." 

Were  solemn  mockery,  perfidious  baseness,  unmitigated 


•     •»•  33    . 

hypocrisy,  and  malignant  barbarity,  ever  more  conspicu- 
ously combined,  and  presented  for  the  just  condemnation 
of  a  right  thinking  world,  than  they  are  in  this  resolution  ; 
passed  by  the  abolition  majority  in  the  Lincoln  Congress? 
Think  of  the  members-  from  Massachusetts  and  Vermont, 
voting  for  the  most  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war,  until 
the  Constitution  and  laws,  shall  be  enforced  and  obeyed,  in  all 
parts  of  the  United  States.  Think  of  the  acts  of  the  Leg- 
islature of  Massachusettes,  passed  in  1843  and  1S55,  still 
standing  upon  her  statute  book,  setting  at  defiance  the 
Constitution  and  laws.  What  would  become  of  these  States? 
And  what  would  become  of  their  members  themselves, 
who  have  upheld  and  sustained  these  violations  of  the 
Constitution  and  laws,  which  is  the  chief  reason  why  they 
now  hold  their'  seats,  by  the  votes  of  their  constituents,  if 
the  war  should  be  so  waged  ?  How  long  Avould  it  be  be- 
fore they  would  ground  their  arms  of  rebellion,  against  the 
provision  of  the  Constitution  which  they  have  set  at 
naught,  and  give  it  their  loyal  support?  What  would  be- 
come of  their  President  and  his  cabinet ;  and  all  who  from 
the  beginning  of  the  war,  and  before  that  time,  have  been 
trampling  the  Constitution  under  their  feet  ?  Were  the 
war  waged  as  they  thus  declare  it  to  be  their  purpose  to 
wage  it,  they  would  be  the  first  victims  of  the  sword  ;  were 
it  first  turned,  as  it  ought  to  be,  against  the  first  .offenders. 
This  they  know  full  well.*  Obedience  to  the  Constitution, 
is  the  last  thing  they  want  or  intend.  Hence  the  mockery, 
baseness,  and  hypocrisy,  of  such  a  declaration  of  purpose. 
On  their  part,  it  is  a  war  of  most  wanton  and  savage  ag- 
gression ;  on  ours  it  is  a  war  in  defence  of  inalienable 
rights  ;  in  defence  of  everything  for  which  freemen  should 
live  ;  and  for  which  freemen  may  ,well  be  willing  to  die. 

|The  inestimable  rights  of  self  government, and  State[Sover- 
eignty  for  which  their  fathers  and  our  fathers  bled  and  suffered 
together,  in  the  struggle  with  England  for  Independence;  are 
the  same  for  which  we  are  now  engaged,  in  this  mostunnat- 
ural  and  sanguinary  struffgle»with  them.  Those  rights  are  as 
dear  to  the  people  of  these  States,  as  they  were  to  those  who 
achieved  them  ;  and  on  account  of  the  great  cost  of  the 
achievement,  they  are  the  more  preciously  cherished,  by 
those. to  whom  they  were  bequeathed,  and  will  never  be 
surrendered  or  abandoned  at  less  sacrifise. 

If  no  proposition  for  peace  or  armistice  is  to  be  received, 
or  entertained,  so  long  as  we  hold  arms  in  our  hands,  to 
defend  ourselves,  our  homes,  our  hearthstones,  our  altars, 
and  our  birthright,  against  such  ruthless  and  worse  than 
vandal  invaders ;  be  it  so  !  We  deem  it  due,  however,  •  to 
ourselves,  to  the  civilized  world,  and  to  those  who  shall 
come  after  us  ;  to  put  upon  record,  what  we  are  fighting 
tor  ;  and  to  let  all  know,  who  may  now  or  hereafter,  feel 
an  interest  in    knowing,    the  real    nature  of  this    conflict; 


39 
that  the  heavy  responsibility,  of  such  suffering,   desolation,, 
and  carnage,  may  rest  where  it  rightfully  belongs. 

It  is  believed  that  many  of  the  people  of  the  Northern 
States,  labor  under  the  impression,  that  no  propositions  for 
peaceful  adjustment,  have  ever  been  made  by  us. 
.  President  Lincoln,  in  his  letter  to  the  "Unconditional 
Union"  meeting  at  Springfield  last  summer,  stated  in  sub- 
stance, that  no  proposition  for  a  peaceful  adjustment  of  the 
matters  in  strife,  had  ever  been  made  to  him  by  those  who 
were  in  control  of  the  military  forces,  of  the  Confederate 
States;  but  if  any  such  should  be  made,  he  would  enter- 
tain and  give  it  his  consideration. 

This  was  doubtless  sand  to  make  the  impression,  on  the 
minds  of  those  not  well  informed,  that  the  responsibility  of 
the  war  was  with  us.  This  declaration  of  President  Lin- 
coln stands  in  striking  contrast,  with  that  above  quoted, 
from  the  republican  members  of  the.  House  of  Representa- 
tives. 

When  this  statement  was  .  made  by  President  Lincoln,  it 
was  well  known  to  him,  that  our  commissioners,  sent  to 
settle  the  whole  matter  in  dispute  psaceably,were  refused  a 
hearing!.  They  were  not  even  permitted  to  present  their 
terms  ! 

This  declaration  was  •  .also  made  soon  after  it  was  well 
known,  throughout  the  Confederate  States  at  least,  that  a 
distinguished  son  of  this  State,  who  is  a  high  functionary 
of  the  government  at  Richmond,  had  consented  as  military 
commissioner,  to  bear  a  communication  in  writing  from 
President  Davis,  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  our  armies, 
to  President  Lincoln  himself  ;  with  authority  to  confer  up- 
on matters  therein  set  forth.  This  Commissioner  sent  from 
the  head  of  our  armies,  was  not  granted  an  audience,  nor 
was  the  communication  he  bore  received.  That  communi- 
cation, as  was  afterwards  known,  related  to  divers  matters 
connected  with  the  general  conduct  of  the  war.  Its  na- 
ture however,  or  to  what  it  referred,  President  Lincoln  did 
not  know,  when  he  refused  to  receive  it.  But  from  what 
is  now  known  of  it,  if  he  had  received  it,  and  had  heard 
what  terms  might  have  been  proposed,  for  the  general  con- 
duet  of  the  war,  it  is  reasonable  to  conclude,  that  the  dis- 
cussion of  these,  and  kindred  topics,  mighl  have  led  to 
some  more  definite  ideas,  of  the  aims  and  objects  of  the  war 
on  both  sides;  from  which  the  initiative  of  pes ful  ad- 
justment, mighl  have  sprung  ;  unless  his  real  purpose  be, 
as  it  is  believed  to  be,  nothing  short  of  the  conquest,  and  sub- 
jugation, of  these  States.  Hi*  announcement,  that  no  offer 
of  terms  of  adjustment  had  ever  been  made  to  him,  is  be- 
lieved to  be  an  artful  pretext  on  his  part,  to  cover,  and 
hide,  from  the  people  over  whom  he  is  assuming  Buch  ab- 
solute sway,  his  deep  designs;  first  against  our  liberties* 
and   then  against  theirs. 


40 

HOW  PEACE  SHOULD  BE  SOUGHT. 

In  view  of  these  difficulties,  it  may  be  asked,  when  and 
how  is  this  war  to  terminate  ?  It  is  impossible  to  say  when 
it  may  terminate  ;  but  it  is  easy  to  say  how  it  will  end.  We 
do  not  seek  to  conquer  the  Northern  people,  and  if  we  are 
true  to  ourselves  they  can  never  conquer  us.  We  do  not 
seek  to  take  from  them  the  right  of  self-government ;  or'to 
govern  them  without  their  consent.  And  they  have  not 
force  enough,  to  govern  us  without  our  consent ;  or  to  de- 
prive us  of  .the  right  to  govern  «ur8elves.  "  The  blood  of 
hundreds  of  thousands  may  yet  be  spilt,  and  the  war  will 
not  still  be  terminated  by  force  of  arms.  Negotiation  uill 
finally  terminate  it.  The  pen  of  the  Statesman,  more  potent 
than  the  sword  of  the  warrior,  must  do,  what  the  latter  has 
failed  to  do. 

But  I  may  be  asked  how  negotiations  are  to  commence, 
when    President  Lincoln  refuses  to  receive  commissioners 
sent  by  us  ;  and  his  Congress  resolves  to  hear  no  proposition 
for  peace?     I  reply,  that  in  my  opinion,  it  is  our  duty,   to 
keep  it  always  before  the  Northern  people,  and  the  civilized 
world,  that  we  are  ready  to  negotiate  for  peace  ;  whenever 
the  people  and  government  of  the  Northern  State's,  are  pre- 
pared  to  recognize,   the    great   fundamental  principles  of 
the  declaration  of  Independence,  maintained  by  our  common 
ancestry — the  rigid  of  all  self-government  and  the  sovereignty  of 
the  States.     In  my    judgment  it  is  the  duty  of  our  govern- 
ment, after  each  important  victory,  achieved  by  our  gallant 
an$  glorious  armies,  on  the  battle  field,   to  make  a  distinct 
proposition  to  the  Northern  government  for  peace,  upon 
these  terms.     By  doing  this,  if  the  proposition   is  declined 
by  them,  we  will  hold  them  up   constantly  in  the  wrong, 
before  their  own  people,  and  the  judgment  of  mankind.     If 
they  refuse  to  receive  the  commissioners  who  bear  the  prop- 
osition,  publish  it  in  the  newspapers  ;  and  let  the  conduct 
of  their  rulers  be  known  to  the  people  ;  and  there  is  reason- 
able ground  to  hope,  that  the  time  may  not  be  far  distant, 
when  a  returning  sense  of  justice,  and  a  desire  for  self-pro- 
tection against  despotism  at  home  ;  will  prompt  the  people 
of  the  Northern  States  to  hurl  from  ptwer, those  who  deny 
the  fundamental  principle,  upon  which  their  own   liberties 
rest ;  and  who  can  never  be  satiated  with  human    blood. 
Let  us  stand  on  no  delicate  point   of  etiquette,  or  diplomat- 
ic ceremony.     If  the  proposition  is  rejecte/1  a  dozen  times, 
let  us  tender  it  again  after  the  next  victory — that  the  world 
may  be  reassured  from  month  to  month,  that  we  are  not  re- 
sponsible, for  the  continuance  of  this  devastation  and  car-' 
nage. 

Let  it  b«  repeated  again  and  again,  to  the  Northern  peo- 
ple, that  all  we  ask,  is  that  they  recognize  the  great  princi- 
ple upon  which  their  own  government  rests, — the  sovereign- 
ty oftlie  States:  and  let  our  own  people  hold  our  own  gov- 


41 
eminent  to  a  strict  account,  for  every  encroachment  upon 
this  vital  principle. 

Herein  lies  the  simple  solution  of  all  these  troubles. 

If  there  be  any  doubt,  or  «ny  question  of  doubt,  as  to  the 
sovereign  will  of  any  one  of  all  the  States  of  this  Confede- 
racy,or  of  any  border  State  whose  institutions  are  similar  to 
ours  not  in  the  Confederacy,  upon  the  subject  of  their  pres- 
ent or  future  alliance  ;  let  all  armed  force  be  withdrawn  ; 
and  let  that  sovereign  will  be  fairly  expressed  at  the  ballot 
box  ;  by  the  legal  voters  of  the  State  ;  and  let  all  parties 
abide  by  the  decision. 

Let  each  State  have  and  freely  exercise,  the  right  to  de- 
termine its  own  destiny,  in  its  own  way.  This  is  all  that 
we  have  been  struggling  for  from  the  beginning.  It  is  a 
principle  that  secures  "  rights,  inestimable  to  freemen,  and 
formidable  to  tyrants  only." 

Let  both  governments  adopt  this  mode  of  settlement, 
which  was  bequeathed  to  them  by  the  great  men  of  the  Rev- 
olution ;  and  which  has  since  been  adopted  J>y  the  Emper- 
or Napoleon  as  the  only  just  mode  for  the  government  of 
States,  or  even  provinces  :  and  the  ballot  box  will  soon 
achieve  what  the  sword  cannot  accomplish — restore  peace 
to  the  country;  and  uphold  the  great  doctrines  of  State  sov- 
ereignty and  constitutional  liberty. 

If  it  is  a  question  of  strife,  whether  Kentucky  or  Mary- 
land, or  any  other  State,  shall  cast  her  lot  with  the  United 
States,  or  the  Confederate  States,  thcje  is  no  mode  of  set- 
tling it  so  justly,  with  so  little  cost,  and  with  so  much  sat- 
isfaction to  herown  people,  as  to  withdraw  all  Military  force 
from  her  limits,  and  leave  the  decision,  not  to  the  sword,  but 
t6  the  ballot  box.  If  she  should  decide  for  herself  to  abol- 
ish slavery  and  go  with  the  North,  the  Confederate  govern- 
ment can  have  no  just  cause  of  complaint,  for  that  govern- 
ment had  its  origin  in  the  doctrine  that  all  jts  just  "  powers 
are  derived  from  the  consent  of  the  governed",  and  we  have 
no  right  to  insist  on  governing  a  sovereign  State,  against 
her  will.  But  if  she  should  decide  to  retain  her  institu- 
tions and  go  with  the  South,  as  we  doubt  not  she  will, when 
the  question  is  fairly  submitted  to  her  people  at  the  polls, 
the  Lincoln  government  must  acquiesce,  or  it  must  repudi- 
ate and  trample  upon,  the  very  essential  principles;  on 
which  it  was  founded,  and  which  were  carried  out  in  prac- 
tice by  thejathers  of  the  Republic,  for  the  first  half  century 
of  its  existence. 

What  Southern  man  can  object  to  this  mode  of  settle- 
ment? His  all  that  South  Carolina,  Virginia,  or  Georgia, 
claimed  when  she  seceded  from  the  Union.  It  is  all  that 
either  has  at  any  time  claimed,  and  all  that  either  ever  can 
justly  claim.  And  what  friend  of  Southern  Independence 
fears  the  result  ?     What  has  the  Abolition  government  done, 


42 

to  cause  the  people  of  any  Southern  State,  to  desire  to  re- 
verse her  decision  ;  and  return  iugloriously  to  its  embrace. 
Are  we  afraid  the  people  of  any  seceded  State,  will  desire  ' 
to  place  the  State  back,  in  the  Abolition  union  ;  under  the 
Lincoln  despotism  ;  after  it  has  devastated  their  fields,  laid 
waste  their  country,  burned  their  cities,  slaughtered  their 
sons,  and  degraded,  their  daughters?  There  is  no  reason  for 
such  fear. 

But  I  may  be  told  that  Mr.  Lincoln  has  repudiated  this 
principle  in  advance,  and  that  it  is  idle  again  to  tender  a 
settlement  upon  these  terms.  This  is  no  reason  why  we 
should  withhold,  the  repeated  renewal  of  the  proposition. 
Let  it  be  made  again  and  again,  till  the  mass  of  the  Northern 
people  understand  it :  and  Mr.  Lincoln  can  not  continue,  to 
stand  before  them  and  the  world,  stained  with  the  blood  of 
their  sons,  their  husbands,  and  their  fathers,  and  insist,  when 
a  proposition  so  fair  is  constantly  tendered,  that  thousands 
of  new  victims  shall  still  continue  to  bleed,  to  gratify  his 
abolition  fanaticism,  satisfy  his  revenge,  and  serve  his  ambi- 
tion, to  govern  these  States,  upon  the  decision  of  one  tenth 
of  the  people  in  his  favor,  against  the  other  nine  tenths.*  Let 
the  Northern  and  Southern  mind  be  brought  to  contem- 
plate this  subject  in  all  its  magnitude  ;  and  while  there  may 
be  extreme  men  on  the  Northern  side,  satisfied  with  nothing 
less  than  the  subjugation  of  the  South,  and  the  confiscation' 
of  our  property  ;  and  like  extremists  on  the  Southern  side, 
whose  morbid  sensibilities  are  shocked,  at  the  mention  of 
negotiation,  or  the  renewal  of  an  otFer  by  us  for  a  settle- 
ment upon  any  terms;  I  eannot  doubt  that  the  cool-headed 
thinking  men  on  both  sid^s  of  the  line,  who  are  devoted  to 
the  great  principles  of  self  government,  and  State  soverign- 
ty,  including  the  scar-covered  veterans  of  the  Army,  will 
finally  settle  down  upon  this  as  the  true  solution  of  the  great 
problem,  whiclj  now  embarrasses  so  many  millions  of  peo- 
ple ;  and  will  find  the  higher  truth  between  the  two  ex- 
tremes. 

If,  upon  the  sober  second  thought,  the  public  sentiment 
North,  sustains  the  policy  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  when  he  proposes, 
by  the  power  of  the  sword,  to  place  the  great  doctrines  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  the  Constitution. of 
his  country,  under  his  feet,  and  proclaims  his  purpose  to 
govern  these  States,  by  Military  power,  when  he  shall  have 
obtained  the  consent  of  one  tenth  of  the  governed;  how  can 
the  same  public  sentiment  condemn  him,  if,  at  the  head  of 
his  vast  armies  he  shall  proclaim  himself  Emperor  of  the 
whole  country  ;  and  submit  the  question  to  the  vote  of  the 
Northern  people,  and  when  he  has  obtained,  as  he  could  ea- 
sily do,  the  vote  of  one  tenth  in  his  favor,  he  shall  insist  on 
his  right  to  govern  them,  as  their  legitimate  sovereign?  If 
he  is  right  in  principle  in  the  one  case,  he  would  unquestion- 


43" 

ably  be  right  in  the  other.  If  he  may  rightfully  continue 
the  war  against  the  South  to  sustain  the  one,  why  may  he 
not  as  rightfully  turn  his  armies  against  the  North  to  estab- 
lish the  other  ? 

But  the  timid  among  us  may  say,  how  are  we  to  meet 
and  repel  his  armies,  if  Mr.  Lincoln  shall  continue  to  reject 
these  terms;  and  shall  be  sustained  by  the  sentiment  of  the 
North  ?  as  he  claims  not  only  the  right  to  govern  us,  but  he 
claims  the  right  to  take  from  us  all  that  we  have. 

The  answer  is  plain.  Let  every  man  do  his  duty  ;  and  let 
us  as  a  people  place  our  trust  in  God,  and  we  shall  certain- 
ly repel  his  assaults,  and  achieve  our  Independence,  and  if 
true  to  ourselves  and  to  posterity,  we  shall  maintain  our 
Constitutional  liberty  also.  The  achievement  of  our  Inde- 
pendence is  a  great  object ;  but  not  greater  than  the  pres- 
ervation of  Constitutional  liberty. 

The  good  man  cannot  read  the  late  proclamation  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  without  being  struck  with  the  resemblance  between 
it,  and  a -similar  one,  issued  several  thousand  years  ago,  by 
Ben-hadad,  king  of  Syria.  That  wicked  king,  denied  in  oth- 
ers the  right  of  self-government  ;  and  vaunting  himself  in 
numbers,  and  putting  his  trust  in  chariots  and  horses,  he  in- 
vaded Israel,  and  beseiged  Samaria  with  an  overwhelming 
force.  When  the  king  of  Israel,  with  a  small  band,  resisted 
his  entrance  into  the  city,  the  Syrian  king  sent  him  this 
message  :  "  Thou  shalt  deliver  me  thy  silver  and  thy  gold, 
and  thy  wives,  and  thy  children  ;  yet  I  will  send  my  ser- 
vants unto  thee  to-morrow,  about  this  time  ;  and  they  shall 
search  thy  house,  and  the  houses  of  thy  servants  ;  and  it, 
shall  be,  that  whatsoever  is  pleasant  in  thine  eyes,  they  shall 
put  in  their  hands  and  take  it  away."  The  king  of  Israel 
consulted  the  Elders,  after  receiving  this  arrogant  message, 
and  replied  :  '•  This  thing  I  may  not  do."  Ben-hadad  enra- 
ged at  this  replyv  and  confident  of  his  strength,  sent  back 
and  said: 

"  The  Gods  do  so  to  me,  and  more  also,  if  the  dust  of  Sa- 
maria shall  suffice,  for  handfuls,  for  all  the  people  that  fol- 
low me".  The  king  of  Israel  answered  and  said:  "Tell 
him,  let  not  him  that  girdeth  on  his  harness,  boast  himself 
as  he  that  putteth  it  off". 

The  result  was,  that  the  small  band  of  Israelites  guided  by 
Jehovah,  attacked  the  Syrian  armies,  and  routed  them  with 
great  slaughter ;. and  upon  a  second  trial  of  strength,  the 
Syrian  armies  were  destroyed  and  their  king  made  captive. 

"When  Mr.  Lincoln,  following  the  example  of  this  wick- 
ed king,  and  relying  upon  his  chariots,  and  his  horsemen,  and 
his.  vast  armies,  to  sustain  a  cause  equally  unjust ;  proclaims 
to  us,  that  all  we  have  is  his,  and  that  he  will  send  iiis  ser- 
vants, whose,  numbers  are  overwhelming,  with  arms  in  their 
hands  to  take  it,  and  threatens  vengeance  if  we  resist  ;  let 


44 

us — "  Tell  him,  let  not  him  that  girdethon  his  harness  boast 
himself  as  he  that  putteth  it  off."  The  race  is  not  to  the 
swift,  nor  the  battle  to  the  stropg.  "  God  is  the  judge,  he 
putteth  down  one  and  setteth  up  another." 

Not  doubting  the  justice  of  our  cause,  let  us  stand  in  our 
allotted  pltces,  and  in  filename  of  Him  who  rules  the  hosts 
of  Heaven,  and  the  armies  of  Earth,  let  us  contiue  to  strike, 
for  liberty  and  independence,  and  our  efforts  will  ultimately 
be  crowned   with  triumphant  success. 

JOSEPH  E.  BROWN. 


4o 


APPENDIX. 

ACT  OF  SIXTEENTH  CHARLES  I,  CHAPTER  10. 

This  went  into  operation  1st  August,  1G41. 
An  Act  for  the  regulating  of  the  privy  council,  and  for 
taking  away  the  Court  commonly  called  the  Star-Chamber. 
WiiEKEASby  the  Great  Charter  many  times  confirmed  in  par- 
liament, it  is  enacted,  That  no  freeman  shall  he  taken  <a-  impru- 
oned,  or  disseized  of  his  freehold  or  liberties,  or  fee  customs,  or  be 
outlawed,  or  exiled,  or  otherwise  destroyed ;  and  that  the  King  will 
not  pass  upon,  him,  or  condemn  him,  but  by  lawful  judgment  of  his 
peers,  or  by  the  law  of  the  land. 

(2.)  And  by  another  statute  made  in  the  fifth  year  of  the 
reign  of  King  Edward,  it  is  enacted,  that  no  man  shall  be 
attached  by  any  at  cusation,  nor  forejudged  of  life,  or  limb,  nor  his 
lands,  tenements,  goads  nor  chattt  Is  s<  ized  into  the  King's  bands, 
against  the  firm  of  the  GREAT,  CHARTER  and  the  Law  of  THE 
Land; 

(o.)  And  by  another  statute  made  in  the  five  and  twen- 
tieth year  of  the  reign  of  the  same  King  Edward  the  Thin'. 
it  is  accorded,  assented,  and  established,  that  none  shall  be 
taken  by  petition,  or  suggestion  made  to  the  King,  or  to  his  council, 
unless  it  be  by  indict  matt  cr  presentment  of  good  and  lawful 
jwople  of  the  same  neighborhood,  where  such  deeds  he  done,  in 
due  manner,  or  by  process  made  by  writ  original  at  the  com- 
mon law  ;  and  that  none  be  put  out  of  his  franchise,  or  freehold, 
unless  he  be  duly  brought  in  to  answer,  and  forejudged  of 
the  same  by  the  course  of  the  law:  And  if  anything  be  done 
against  the  same,  it  shall  be  redressed,  and  holden  for  none.  (4) 
And  by  another  statute  made  in  the  eight  and  twentieth 
year  of  the  reign  of  the  same  King  Edward  the  Third,  it  is, 
amongst  other  things,  enacted,  That  no  man,  of  what  estate 
or  condition  soever  he  be,  shall  be  put  out  of  his  lands  and 
tenements,  nor  taken,  nor  imprisoned,  nor  disinherited,  without  be- 
ing brought  in  to  answer  by  DUE  PROCESS  of  LAW. 
(6)  And  by  another  statute  made  in  the  two  and  fortieth  year 
of  the  reign  of  the  said  King  Edward  the  Third,  it  is  enac- 
ted, That  no  man  be  put  to  answer  without  presentment 
fore  justices  or  matter  of  record,  or  by  due  process  and  writ 
original,  according  to  the  OLl>  LAW  <f  the  land:  And  if 
anything  be  done  to  the  contrary,  it  shall  be  void  in  law  and 
holden  for  error.  ((})  And  by  another  statute  in  the  six  and 
thirtieth  year  of  the  reign  of  i lie  same  King  Edward  tee 
Third,  it  is,  amongst  other  things,  Enacted,  That  all  pleas, 
which  shall  be  pleaded  in  any  courts, "before  any  of  the 
King's  justices,  or  in  his  other  places  or  before  any  of  his 
other  ministers,  or  in  the  courts  and  places  of  any  other 
lords  within  this   realm,    shall   be    entered  and  enrolled  in 


4G 

Latin.  (7)  And  whereas  by  the  statute  made  in  the  third 
year  of  King  Henry  the  Seventh,  power  is  given  to  the 
"chancellor,  the  lord  treasurer  of  England,  for  the  time  be- 
ing, and  the  keeper  of  the  King's  Privy  seal,  or  two  of 
them,  calling  unto  them  a  bishop,  and  a  temporal  lord  of 
the  King's  most  honorable  council,  and  the  two  chief  jus- 
tices of  the  King's  bench,  and  common  pleas  for  the  time 
being,  or  other  two  justices  in  their  absence,  to  proceed  as 
in  that  act  is  expressed,  for  the  punishment  of  some  particu- 
lar offences  therein  mentioned.  (S)  And  by  the  statute 
made  in  the  one  and  twentieth  year  of  King  Henry  the 
Eighth,  the  president  of  the  council  associated  to  join  with 
the  lord  chancellor,  and  other  judges  in  the  said  statute  of 
the  third  of  Henry  the  Seventh  mentioned.  (9)  But  the 
said  iudges  have  not  kept  themselves  to  the  points  limited 
by  the  said  statute,  but  have  undertaken  to  punish  where 
no  law  doth  warrant,  and  to  make  decrees  for  things,  having 
no  such  authority,  and  to  inflict  heavier  punishments,  than  by 
any  taw  is  warranted. 

2.  And  forasmuch  as  all  matters  examinable  or  determin- 
able before  the  said  judges  dr  in  the  court  commonly  called 
the  star-bfuimber,  may  have  their  proper  remedy  and  redress, 
and  their  due  punishment  and  correction  by  the  common  law 
of  the  land,  and  in  the  ordinary  course  of  justice  elsewhere.  (2) 
And  forasmuch  as  the  reasons  and  motives,  inducing  the 
erection  and  continuance  of  that  court  do  now  cease.  ,  (3) 
And  the  proceedings,  censures,  and  decrees  of  that  court, 
have  by  experience  been  found  to  bean  intolerable  burthen 
to  the  subject,  and  the  means  to  introduce  an  arbitrary  pow- 
er and  government.  (4)  And  .for  as  much  as  the  council  ta- 
ble hath  of  late  times  assumed  unto  itself,  a  power  to  inter- 
meddle in  civil  and  matters  only  of  private  interest  between 
party  and  party;  and  have  ADVEN  t'URJED  to  determine  of 
the  estates  and  liberties  of  the  subjects,  cqntrary  to  the  LAWS  of 
the  LAND,  and  the  Rights  and  Privileges  of  the  subject,  by 
which  great  and  manifold  mischiefs  and  inconveniences  have 
arisen  and  happened,  and  much  in  certainty,  by  means  of- 
such  proceedings,  hath  been  conceived  concerning  men's 
rights  and  estates ;  for  settling  whereof  and  Preventing  the 
like  in  time  to  come, 

3.  Be  it  ordained  and  Enacted  by  the  authority  of  this  pres- 
ent purlin  mutt,  That  the  said  court  commonly  called  the 
star-chamber,  and  all  jurisdictions,  power  and  authority,  be- 
longing unto,  or  exercised  in  the  same  court,  or  by  any  the 
judges,  officers,  or  ministers  thereof,  be  from  the  first  day 
of  August,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  God  one  thousand  six 
hundred  forty  and  one,  CLEARLY  and  ABSOLUTELY 
di ssn/ red,  taken  away,  and  determined.  (2)  And  that  from  the 
said  first  day  of  August  neither  the  lord  chancellor  or  keep- 
er of  the  Great  seal  of  England,  the  lord  treasurer  of  Eng- 


•47 

land,  the  keeper  of  the  King's  Privy  seal,  or  president  of 
the  council,  nor  any  bishop,  temporal  lord,  privy  counsel- 
lor or  judge,  or  justice  whatsoever,  shall  have  any  power 
or  authority  to  hear,  examine  or  determine  any  matter  or 
thing  whatsoever,  in  the  said  court,  commonly  called  the 
Star-Chamber,  or  to  make,  pronounce,  or  deliver  anv  judg- 
ment, sentence,  order  or  decree  ;  or  to  do  any  judicial  or 
ministerial  act  in  the  said  court.  (■">).  And  that  all  and  eve- 
ery  act  and  acts  of  parliament,  and  all  and  every  article, 
clause,  and  sentence  in  them,  and  every  of  them,  by  which 
any  jurisdiction,  power  or  authority  is  given,  limited  or  tip- 
pointed  unto  the  said  court,  commonly  called  the  Star- 
Chamber,  or  unto  all,  or  any  of  the  judges,  officers,  or  min- 
isters thereof,  or  for  any  proceedings  to  be  had  or  made  in 
the  said  court,  or  for  any  matter  or  thing  to  be  drawn  into 
question,  examined  or  determined  there,  shall  for  so  much 
as  concerneth  the  said  court  of  Star-Chamber,  and  the  pow- 
er and  authority  thereby  given  unto  it,  be  from  the  first 
day  of  August  REPEALED  and  ABSOLUTELY, REVOK- 
ED (Did  made  void. 

4.  And  be  it  likewise  Enacted,  That  the  like  jurisdiction 
now  used  and  exercised  in  the  court,  before  the  president 
and  council  in  the  marches  of  Wales;  (2)  And  also  in  the 
court,  before  the  president  and  council  established  in  the 
northern  ports;  (3)  And  also  in  the  c6urt  commonly  called 
the  court  of  the  duchy  of  Lancaster,  held  before  the  chan- 
cellor and  council  of  that  court';  (4)  And  also  in  the  court 
of  Exchequer  of  the  county  palatine  of  Chester ,  held  before  the 
chamberlain  and  council  of  that  court  ;  (5)  The  like  juris- 
diction being  exercised  there,  shall,  from  the  said  first  day 
of  August  one  thousand  six  hundred  forty-one,  be  also  RE- 
PEALED, and  ABSOLUTELY  REVOKED,  and  made 
VOID  ;  am/  law,  prescription,  custom  or  usage,  or  Hue  said  stat- 
ute made  in  the  third  year  of  King  Henry  the  Seventh,  or  the 
statute  made  in  the  one  and  twentieth  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  or 
any  act  or  acts  of  parliament  heretofore  had  <n-  made,  to  the  con- 
trary thereof,  in  any  wise  notwithstanding.  ('">)  AND  THAT 
FROM  HENCEFORTH  No  court,  council  or  PLACE  OF 
JUDICATURE,  SHALL  BE  ERECTED,  ORDAINED, 
CONSTITUTED  OR  APPOINTED  WITHIN  THIS 
REALM  OF  /:  'land,  OR  DO  MINION  OF  Wales,  WHICH 
SHALL  HAVE,  USE,  OB  EXERCISE  Tin:  SAME,  OR 
THE  LIKE  JURISDICTION,  AS  IS  OR  HATH  BEEN 
USED,  PRACTICED  OR  EXERCISED  IN  THE  SAID 
COURT  OF  Star-Chamber. 

lie  it  liken  ise  declared,  and  Enaeied  by  the  authority 
of  this  presmt     parliament.   That    neither  his    MAJESTY, 
NOR    his   PRIVY    COUNCIL,    HAVE,   or  OUGHT   TO 
HAVE  any  jurisdiction,  power  or  authority,  by  English  bti>. 
tition,    articles,    libels,  or    any   other    ARBITRARY    WAV 


4S 

WHATSOEVER,  to  examine  or  draw  into  question)  determine 
or  dispose  of  the  lands,  tenements,  hereditaments,  goods  or  chattels 
of  any  of  the  subjects  of  this  kingdom  ;  but.  that  the  same  ought  to 
be  tried,  and  determined  in  the  ordinary  courts  of  justice  and  bij 
the  ordinary  course  of  lav. 

6.  And  be  it  further  provided  and  enacted,  that  if  any  lord 
chancellor  or  keeper  of  the  Great  seal  of  England  ;  lord  treas- 
urer, keeper  of  the  king's  privy  seal,  president  of  the  coun- 
cil, bishop,  temporal  lord,  privy  counsellor,  judge  or  justice 
whatsoever,  shall  offend,  or  do  anything  contrary  to  the  pur- 
port, true  intent,  and  meaning  of  this  law,  then  he  or  the)'- 
for  such  offence  forfeit  the  sum  FIVE  HUNDRED  POUNDS 
of  lawful  money  of  England,  unto  any  party  grieved,  his  ex- 
ecutors or  administrators,  who  shall  really  prosecute  for  the 
same,  and  first  obtain  judgment  thereupon  to  be  recovered 
in  any  Court  of  record  at  Westminister,  by  action  of  debt,  bill, 
plaint,  or  information,  wherein  no  essoign,  protection,  wa- 
ger of  law,  aid  prayer,"  privilege,   injunction    or  order  of  re- 
straint, shall  be  IN  asy  WISE  prayed,  granted  or  allowed,   nor 
any  more  than   one    imparlance.  (2)     And   if  any   person, 
against  whom,  any  such  judgment  or  recovery  shall  be  had 
as  aforesaid,  shall,  after  such  judgment   or  recovery,  offend 
again,  in  the  same,  then  he  or  they  for  such   offence    shall 
forfeit  the  sum  of  OttE  THOUSAND   POUNDS  of  lawful 
money  of  England,  unto  any  party  grieved,  his  (  xecutors  or 
administrators,  who  shall  really  prosecute  for  the  same,  and 
first  obtain  judgment   thereupon,  to  be  recovered    in    any 
court  of  record  at  Westminister  by  action  of  debt,  bill,  plaint, 
or  information,  inwhich   no  essoign,  protection,  wager   of 
law,  aid  prayer,  privilege,  injunction  or  order  of  restraint, 
shall  be  IN  ANY  WISE  prayed,  granted  or  allowed ;  nor  any 
more  than   one  imparlance,  (-i)     And  if  any  person,  against 
whom  any  such  second  judgment  or  recovery  shall  be  had  as 
aforesaid,  shall  after  such  judgment  of  recovery  offend  again 
in  the  same  kind,  and  shall  be  thereof  duly  convicted  by  in- 
dictment, information,  or  any  other  lawful  way  or  means, 
that  such  person    so    convicted  shall  be   from  thenceforth 
DISABLED,  and  become,  by  virtue  of  this  act  INCAPA- 
BLE, ipso  facto,  to  bear  his  and  their  said  office  and  offices  respec- 
tively. (4)     And  shall  be  likewise  disabled  to  male  any  gift, 
grant,  conveyance,  or  other  disposition,  of  any  of  Jus  lands,  tene- 
ments, hereditaments;  goods  or  chattels  ;  or  to  make  any  benefit  of 
any  gifts,  conveyance  or  legacy,  to  his  own  use. 

7.  And  every  person  so  offending,  shall  likewise  profit  and' 
loose  to  the  party  grieved,  by  anything  done,  contrary  to  the 
true  intent  and  meaning  of  this  law,  his  trible  damages,  which 
lie  shall  sustain  and  be  put  unto,  by  means  or  occasion  of 
any  such  act,  or  thing  done  ;  the  same  to  be  recovered  in 
any  of  his  Majesty's  courts  of  record  at  Westminister,  by  ac- 
tion of  debt,  bill,  plaint,  or  information,  wnerein  no  essoign, 


49 

protection,  wager  of  law,  aid  prayer, privilege,  injunction, 
or  order  of  restraint,  shall  be  IN  ANY  WISE  prayed,  granted 
or  allowed,  nor  any  more  than  one  imparlance. 

8.  And  be  it  also  provided  and  enacted,  That  if  any  per- 
son shall  hereafter  be  committed,  restrained  of  his  liberty ,or 
suffer  imprisonment,  by  the  order  or^lecree  of  any  such  court 
of  star-chamber,  or  other  court  aforesaid,  now,  or  at  any 
time  hereafter,  having,  or  pretending  to  have,  the  same,  or 
like  jurisdiction,  power  or  authority,  to  commit  or  imprison 
as  aforesaid  ;  (2)  Or  by  the  command  or  warrant  of  the 
Icing's  Majesty,  his  heirs  and  successors  in  their  own  person  ;  or 
by  the  command  or  warrant  of  the  council-board  ;  or  of  any 
of  the  lords,  or  others  of  his  Majesty's  privy  council ;  (3)  That  in 
every  such  case,  every  person  so  committed,  restrained  of  his 
liberty,  or  suffering  imprisonment,  upon  demands  or  motion 
made  by  his  counsel,  or  other  employed  by  him  for  that  pur- 
pose, unto  the  Judges  of  the  court  of  king's  bench, 'or  com- 
mon pleas,  in  open  court,  shall,  without  delay,  upon  any 
pretence  whatsoever,  for  the  ordinary  fees  usually  paid  for 
the  same,  have  forthwith  granted  unto  him  a  writ  of  habeas 
corpus,  to  be  directed  generally  unto  all  and  every  sheriff, 
gaoler,  minister,  officer,  or  other  person,  in  whose  custody" 
the  person  committed  or  restrained,  shall  be.  (4)  And  the 
sheriffs,  gaoler,  minister,  officer,  or  other  person,  in  whose 
custody  the  person  so  committed  or  restrained  shall  be,  shall, 
at  the  return  of  the  said  writ  and  according  to  the  command 
thereof,  upon  due  and  convenient  notice  thereof,  given  unto 
him,  at  the  charge  of  the  party  who  requireth  or  prosecuteth 
such  writ,  and  upon  security  by  his  own  bond  given,  to  pay 
the  charge  of  carrying  back  the  prisoner,  if  he  shall  be  re- 
manded by  the  court  to  which  he  shall  be  brought ;  as  in 
like  cases  hath  been  used  ;  such  charges  of  bringing  up,  and 
carrying  back  the  prisoner,  to  be  always  ordered  by  the  court, 
if  any  differance  shall  arise  thereabout ;  bring  or  cause  to  be 
brought,  the  body  of  the  said  party  so  committed  or  restrain- 
ed, unto  and  before  the  Judges  or  justices  of  the  said  court, 
from  whence  the  same  writ  shall  issue,  in  open  court.  (6) 
And  shall  then  likewise  certify  the  true  cause  of  such,  his  de- 
tainer^ imprisonment.and  thereupon  the  court,  within  three 
court  days  after  such  return,  made  and  delivered  in  open 
court,  shall  proceed  to  examine  and  determine,  whether  the 
cause  of  such  commitment,  appearing  upon  the  said  return, 
be  just  and  legal  or  not,  and  shall  thereupon  do  what  to 
JUSTICE  SHALL  APPERTAIN,  either  by  delivering, 
bailing,  or  remanding  the  prisoner.  (6)  And  if  anything 
shall  be  otherwise  wilfully  done,  or  omitted  to  be  done  by 
any  judge,  justice,  officer  or  other  person  afore-mentioned, 
contrary  to  the  directions  and  true  meaning  hereof,  then 
such  persons  so  offending  shall  forfeit  to  the  party  grieved,  bis 
triblc  damages  to  be  recovered  by  such  means,  and  in  such 
4 


50 

manner  as  is  formerly  in  this  act,  limited  and  appointed,  for 
the  like  penalty  to  be  sued  for  and  recovered. 

9.  Provided  always,  and  be  it  enacted,  That  this  act  and 
the  several  clauses  therein  contained  shall  be  taken  and  ex- 
pounded to  extend  only  to  the  court  of  STAR-CHAMBER ; 
(2)  And  to  the  said  court-holden  before  the  president  and 
council  in  the  marches  of  Wales  ;  (3)  And  before  the  president 
and  council  in  the  Northern  ports  ;  (4)  And  aleo  to  the  court 
commonly  called  the  court  of  the  duchy  of  Lancaster  holden 
before  tne  chancellor  and  council  of  that  court ;  (5)  And  also* 
in  the  court  of  Exchequer,  of  the  county  palatine  cf  Chester, 
held  before  the  chamberlain  and  council  of  that  court ;  (6) 
And  to  all  courts  of  like  jurisdiction  to  be  hereafter  erected,  "or- 
dained, constituted,  or  appointed,  as  aforesaid ;  and  to  the 
warrants  and  directions  of  the  council-board,  and  to  the  com- 
mitments, restraints  aud  irnprisojirnents  of  any  person  or  persons, 
made,  commanded  or  awarded  by  the  Icing's  Majesty,  his  heirs 
or  successors,  in  their  own  person,  or  by  the  lords,  and  others  of 
the  privy  council,  and  every  one  of  them. 

And  lastly,  provided  and  be  it  enacted,  That  no  person  or 
persons  shall  be  sued,  impleaded,  molested  or  troubled,  for 
any  offence  against  this  present  act,  unless  the  party  suppos- 
ed to  have  so  offended,  shall  be  sued,  or  impleaded  for  the 
isame,  within  two  years,  at  the  most,  after  such  time,  wherein 
the  Baid  offence  shall  be  committed. 


O 


